The USA was founded as a Republic; a republic is by definition, an oligarchy. it is not a democracy. The USA is in fact a serial oligarchy. A republic is subject to a constitution.

An oligarchy is a government by an elite group of citizens. We are governed by three 'groups' of elite citizens. The Constitution decrees that they must share power. An example of the genius of the Founders. The three groups fight among themselves and we don't have to worry about what they do until they all agree on an action. It is deliberately inefficient and remarkably stable. The Congress is the only one that can make the rules, the Courts must agree that it meets constitutional muster and the President must agree to sign it or risk being overridden.

A democracy is defined as government by a direct vote of all eligible citizens. A democracy has no constitution. No constitution can survive in a democracy because the citizens can demand to do away with part or all of it at any time. Try doing away with ours. It won't happen, which is why the Democrats are forced to try to make it as irrelevant as possible by inventing rights that were never envisioned by any sane human being.

The suggestion that we are a representative anything (republic or democracy) is ridiculous. We have constitutionally set times when we have the opportunity to have our voices heard in the selection of our temporary oligarchs. They are called elections. They style themselves as "representatives of the people" but once elected, they have no legal requirement to do anything that serves the people. They can, and do, make whatever rules please themselves. The people's only recourse is not to re-elect them.

We are a Republic! The voting exercise we are granted is extremely limited in what it can do. In a democracy, the vote has absolute power. Our votes have minimal power.