The Founders knew this and assiduously opposed democracy. Fifty percent plus one is no magic number that transforms a wrong action into a right action. Majority vote can be a useful tool for choosing political leaders, but majority opinion or a majority vote does not constitute a validation of an idea. Truth is not determiend by reference to any show of hands. Whim is still whim, whether it be the subjective whim of an individual or the subjective whim of any group, including the majority of the moment.
Truth is independent of whim.
Progress toward being civilized depends on the separation of Force from Whim. Progress toward a more civilized society is the triumph of Principle over Whims. And the key principle of the old American Republic was the principle of individual rights of self-ownership and private property. It is this principle that set the American Republic apart from any majority-rule democracy as well as from absolute monarchy or a tyrannical oligarchy. And an even more consistent application of that principle for limiting government's scope would be the primary distinction of the Laissez-Faire Republic which we libertarians advocate for a rebirth of human freedom and progress, even going far beyond what was achieved in the past when America was still free.