[deepsun]

Sorry, you obviously don't live in a totalitarian country.

Democracy is never ideal, it's always full of crooks, lies, hypocrisy. Especially when most people have more interesting things to do than participating in politics. But it's not even close to anything totalitarian. I've lived in both, and have the perspective.

[soco]

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Winston S Churchill, 11 November 1947

[_cenw]

The person above didn't claim that? It's just the difference between ideal democracy where the interests of most people are reflected in policy and US democracy (and most others, to different degrees) where choice is limited and corporate interests weigh much more heavy, it's hard to tell if it's closer to a more openly top-down form of government than it is from the ideal.

[deepsun]

Yet the person above didn't get arrested and tortured for that comment. Or for a wrong "like" on Facebook. I'm not exaggerating, it really happens every day.

[_cenw]

Democracy is defined by direct or indirect control of government by people, not the presence or absence of coercion or how violent that coercion is.

This is not a binary choice. Both can be present. Both can be absent. The US arguably has a degree of both.