Small "d" democracy is fine but in places like the USofA, what we have is voting instead of democracy.

The people you vote for, don't have to do anything they say they'd do, and the worst consequences they can face is maybe loosing their election next year. Except in cases where the people who won their races appoint people into unelected positions and then its pretty much a coin flip whether the next elected candidate to the position appoints somebody else to that unelected position.

And then, there's the majority of times when there are candidates you could vote for but none of them even remotely align with your beliefs or wants for society. So, having a democratic election where you're just voting for something like "the least worst monster" or the "least effective fascist" just doesn't feel worth it.