[AlexM]

The thing is, we do have a democracy. The problem is that most people are really, really stupid and when you give really, really stupid people control over the government, this is what happens. This is why the Constitution was written to make it nearly impossible for Congress to do anything. The problem with that is that people turned out to be so stupid that the politicians are able to largely ignore the Constitution and get away with it. Not to mention the dreaded 17th Amendment, which removed the only real check on the Federal Government's power.