democracy – what does it mean to you?

I’m taking an American Government class this semester.  My professor has talked of how the cultural values of the majority drives government, but that cultural norms can conflict with the letter of the law. 

Example:  Consider you’re at a Vikings/Packers game in Minneapolis and a Green Bay fan gets up and starts shouting, “GO PACKERS”.  Considering he’s surrounded by Vikings fans and he’s on Viking turf, a Minnesota fan gets up, grabs a bottle of mustard and squirts it all over him.  Mustard is not harmless, it’s acidic and if it gets in your eyes it could blind you.  In addition, there are local police officers – who are Viking fans as well – who witness the entire incident and do nothing to stop it and do nothing to the man who assaulted the Packer fan.  The cultural norm in Viking Stadium is that the collective majority do not like the Packers.  But what the Viking fan did is wrong, he broke the law, yet he was not punished.  Is this truly democratic?  I don’t think it is. 

The inalienable rights of Americans are supposed to apply to ALL citizens yet so many times they seem to merely apply to the majority.  How is that fair?  It’s not.  In my opinion, that’s the thing about democracy – you have to really want it because it’s going to fight you.  There is always going to be someone whose values conflict with your own.  But just because they conflict, does that make them “wrong”?  No, it doesn’t.  Why have so many people become intolerant?  Was it 9/11 that did it, or did 9/11 simply make intolerance more acceptable? 

Robert Kennedy once said – “what is dangerous about extremist is not that they’re extreme, but that they are intolerant”.  I love those words because they are so true.  Take the American Flag – if you’re going to support a person’s right to wave the flag in the name of patriotism, then you have to also support a person’s right to burn the flag in protest.  If the government doesn’t support both sides then we, as a nation, are simply a hop, skip and a jump away from fascism.  At least that’s my belief.  It’s not about who is right and who is wrong, it’s about respect – respect for the right of each individual to have his or her own beliefs, whether they agree with your own or not. 

I’m not really sure exactly where I’m going with this, these are just thoughts that are floating around in my head.  I’m trying to make sense of it all and any input you can offer would be greatly appreciated.