>> Democracy seems to be more of a key characteristic of our form of government but not necessarily the ultimately definitive characteristic. <<
Yes, I think it’s the protection of individual rights that’s most distinctive about our form of government, but that’s hard to preserve without the good will of the majority. As I’m about to explain, it’s not true that our Constitution prevents the majority from taking away our freedoms. Sure they can — if the majority is large enough to pass amendments. What it did is make doing so very difficult.