What representative government (this is not Democracy but it is democratic) requires is essentially twofold: (1) that the proper repository of ALL political rights is within the individual citizen and not any collective to which he or she may belong, and (2) that citizens voting in favor of a course of action take responsibility for the outcome and alter their guidance accordingly if necessary.
One can see how the current political situation in the United States is at hazard on both accounts. Here faction has taken on the forms of tribalism just as the Founders feared it would. And this has led to a childlike narrative involving accusations toward political opponents that they are the only thing preventing a fantasy utopia. Conservatives have been occasionally guilty of this pattern of behavior but liberals have adopted it as central to their religion.
Put another way, what a free society requires is free men and women to compose it. Where a society includes a plurality of men and women who do not desire freedom, or who prefer power to freedom, it is no longer a free society no matter what its form of government is.
Well said. So sad.