Minority rights are protected

It seems that many people in this country do not understand or do not agree that minority rights are constitutionally protected. The persistent calls for a constitutional convention and “we won, get over it” demonstrate this.

The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, was added to protect the rights of minorities. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, separation of church and state and even the right to bear arms are included. When you hear criticism of President Donald Trump from the press or populace, the folks doing so are exercising their constitutionally protected rights, and that dialogue is exactly what was intended by the framers of the Constitution.

A democracy may mean that the majority rules, but that only means that no more than 49.999 percent of people (except when you have an Electoral College involved, but that is another letter) did not vote for the winner. Such a system needs to take minority views into account so as not to create a huge block of very disgruntled people.

So all the Obama-bashing done over the last eight years was protected just as all the Trump-bashing is now. Let’s not lose the ability to speak our minds by writing minority rights out of the Constitution. The minority didn’t win, but the majority needs to get over it.

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 7:37 PM with the headline "Minority rights are protected."