Thoughts on the Meaning of ‘Democracy’

Sen. Mike Lee has been tweeting some interesting things.
During Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate, Lee declared on Twitter, “We’re not a democracy.”
That raised some eyebrows, to say the least. He followed up by tweeting, “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity [sic] are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.”
I’ll spare you the Twitter histrionics. Suffice it to say a great many people did not sigh with relief at this clarification. Maybe they should have, at least a little.