Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is one of the most important historic moments in United States history, to which Lincoln resolved that the: "… government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." The above quotation implies quite strongly that Lincoln, considered to be one of the clearest, thoughtful, and most honest politicians ever, believed that this was indeed a government of, by, and for the people, at least in 1863. However, today, looking around at the concentration of so many industries in too few hands, of mass media that at best represents two sides of the very side coin, clearly this seems to be a government that in effect is one that marches to the beat of the military-industrial complex, massive multi-national corporations, and special privileged elite people, all under the god of mammon and power.
America is a nation of around 320 million peoples, of which, for most people, though not all, upon turning eighteen, one is eligible to vote in democratic elections. That part seems to indicate positively that this really is a government of and by the people, but that unfortunately, doesn't reflect truly the present situation. For instance, at the time of Lincoln's first presidential campaign, there were four major candidates that received electoral votes, of which Lincoln received the majority of those votes and was duly elected. While America subsequently has had many third party candidates that have attempted to win the Presidential election, the reality is that since 1952, the only third party Presidential candidate to win any electoral votes at all was George Wallace in 1968, and that's it.
In order for the people to have choice, you need to have at least two choices, to which our present day Republicans v. Democrats, represent something erringly similar to Coca-Cola v. Pepsi Cola, Airbus v. Boeing, Bloomberg v. Reuters, Unilever v. Proctor & Gamble, and so forth, to which each of these mighty companies together, dominate their respective markets, and any other players are so small as to not being able to make a meaningful market impact or are simply seen as fringe players. Although, ostensibly these companies are fierce competitors, they are as seen from a different and truer perspective, in the same sort of business, which is first of all protecting their own turf from any upstarts, along with monitoring regulations that would adversely impact them and conversely supporting legislation that protects them, as well as keeping on top of any and all activities that does not support the current status quo.
When there are only two essential political choices, it is very easy for those choices to be marketed to the people in such a manner so as to sell the illusion that they are often at loggerheads, whereas, more realistically they simply take turns at helming the royal ocean liner that is America to the benefit of those that control or guide these parties and their actual policies behind the scenes.. Today's politicians are very good at promising all sorts of nonsense and coming up with catchy slogans such as: "change we can believe in," or "make America great again," but in actuality nothing ever changes, and nothing great ever comes forth.
The bottom line is that America isn't really a democracy, it isn't even a republic, it is controlled in actuality by privileged people, the military-industrial complex, and mega-corporations that want to maintain their power and riches at the expense of the people. If this really was a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, than the government wouldn't treat the common man as someone that needs to be controlled, monitored, and sanctioned, but would instead see the common man as the salt of the earth, decent, filled with common sense, and good.