Words do mean things so that excuse is a lame cop out.
Nowhere in the Constitution or the Declaration is the word Democracy used.
That we are a democracy is a leftist meme used repeatedly to prove why we have gone wrong and why it needs to be corrected by full blown socialism of one brand or another.
You and I are on the same side.
My characterization isn’t a cop-out, it is an explanation of reality. In the case of “Democracy” I think many of them don’t know any better, they are just uneducated. They really do think we are a Democracy.
However, I know there are many on the left to whom that distinction is quite understood...and exploited.