We are not a democracy, we are a republic.
The subject is the anti-democratic machinations of the primary process, not the knee-jerk cliche that “we are a republic.” And we’re not even a republic. The US is a nation-state wherein the central government has unlimited powers. If you doubt this, read Justice Thomas’s rebuttal to Gonzales v Raisch.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it stands
, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
And no, the central government, i.e. the federal government does not have unlimited powers. They are limited by the Constitution; it's the people that grant certain powers to the fed's although of late they've chosen to ignore a great part of it.
If you doubt this, read the Constitution.