Remember, bitcoin is not a "democracy" and even popular opinion cannot force a change to the protocol.
BIPs have been put to vote by miners. So it is a democracy and majority opinion rules.
And so far, forking changes have been accepted by everyone. It isn't the "vote" that made it possible, its the fact that a consensus was reached that the change was necessary.
I'm pretty confident that a change to the inflation schedule will not reach the same consensus.