I gave definitions. You gave anecdotes, quotes and links.
I can do the same:
"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others"
Winston Churchill
Democracy, or democratic government, is "a system of government in which all the people of a state or polity are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives to a parliament or similar assembly,"
Democracy is further defined as (a
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] "government by the people; especially : rule of the majority (b
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] " a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy
Now I would argue that in the US the people do elect representatives to a parliament and there are periodically held free elections. It's not democracies fault that the American people for tend to vote for persons who are financed by the top quantile or members of said quantile.