Frank's Musings

Even the amendment of the U.S. Constitution can be done by less than a majority of citizens.  The United States was never a strict popular democracy; it is a federation of similarly less-than-popular democratic states.  Thus, the principle of rule by law, however the law is adopted and consented to, means that a federation, for example, may set rules for conducting the affairs of the community by consent of the governed, including defining the criteria for legitimizing those rules. 

There is no conflict between the shibboleth of democratic government and the primacy of the rule by commonly accepted law.  To believe that how we have agreed to run things--under a basic law like the Constitution--somehow violates our moral commitment to democracy is to fall for the trickery of a demagogue, like Trump, who tries to confuse the public into abandoning good order and support his personal ambition to return to power.