[keernan]

It's interesting that so many Americans currently alive actually believe they have ever lived in a democracy. The news they read every day has been controlled since the day they were born. Their choices in every election they have ever participated in have been selected by forces well beyond their control. The only "democracy" they have experienced is the freedom to make choices from a menu created by the actual powers.

In fairness, this has almost certainly been true of every governing system in the history of mankind. The powerful get to define the boundaries of the rules of society - the rest of us get to survive within those boundaries. Some government systems provide more flexibility within those boundaries than others - but at the end of the day, at their core - they are really all the same.