Did you read the above?
Here’s the problem. What Mr. Thomasson described isn’t democracy. The room contained a self-selected group of people who were 99% in favor of regulatory planning. The planning commission members were in favor of regulatory planning. They brought letters from their friends who were in favor of regulatory planning. Mr. Miller from county planning had switched his recommendation to also favor regulatory planning. To be generous, from all those sources there may have been 200 votes in favor of regulatory planning.
Those 200 non-representative people were busy determining (amidst applause, self-congratulations and jokes) a county policy about regulatory planning that will have the authority of governing law over all of the land owners in Elbert County. They had a good ol’ time manipulating a system that most people in the county don’t even know exists.
Not one of those people in the room were elected to represent the people they were, effectively, governing. That is not democracy. No way. No how. Not even close.
Before they can reasonably connect the word “democracy” to “regulatory planning” in Elbert County, Mr. Thomasson and friends will need to put it to a vote of all the people.
Acting like thugs and courting sympathetic judges does not earn them the right to claim democracy.