Never had so many people been able to vote, or have access to vote, and while there are exceptions to this rule, most notably disenfranchised minorities and disenfranchised felons, most everyone that is at least 18 years of age, of either sex, is eligible to vote, which was not the case when this country first established its Constitution, which limited voting to white, land owning males. While the fact that so many people can vote of diversified backgrounds and perspectives, for their representatives both locally and nationally, as well as for the President, judges, and propositions, the results of that voting does not seem to jibe all that well to consensus views on a lot of salient topics; in addition to the fact that the things of most vital importance don't seem to be put up to a democratic vote, but are decided behind closed doors by our legislators, judicial administrators, or executive fiat.
For instance, the legalization of marijuana is something that ten States of this union have passed, as a State law, but under the federal law, nothing has changed in regards to marijuana, which is still classified as a Schedule 1 drug, which is the same classification as heroin, peyote, and methamphetamine. In addition, though there are a total of thirty-two States that permit medical marijuana; according to federal law marijuana is not medically legal to prescribe, irrespective of whether it has been State prescribed to a given patient or not, it is still against federal law. Yet, as shown on pewresearch.org, "About six-in-ten Americans (62%) say the use of marijuana should be legalized," and though it must be said, that the majority does not always get it right, clearly those that would want to see marijuana at least decriminalized throughout this land, and thereby removed from being classified as a schedule 1 drug, would be an overwhelming majority of voting Americans, yet, that is not the law.
So too, one of the most important areas of law, is the tax code, of which vox.com, reports "that upward of 60 percent of the public says they are very worried that some corporations and wealthy individuals aren’t paying their fair share," yet, taxes have not gone up in recent years for the wealthy and corporations, but actually have gone down. This again, is demonstrative proof that the people are not getting what they want to get in regards to a fair and equable tax system, yet in theory, this is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.
In actuality, this country is effectively run by the very wealthy at the expense of the people as a whole. For instance, as reported by cnn.com, "The richest 1% of families controlled a record-high 38.6%..." whereas "The bottom 90% of families now hold just 22.8% of the wealth." This signifies, that the richest 1% of this country in aggregate own nearly 70% more in assets than the bottom 90% of the families combined; yet, the rich keep getting richer, and the poor keep getting poorer, of which, each member of the 1% gets exactly one democratic vote, as compared to each member of the 90%, getting exactly one democratic vote, yet, somehow the 90% gets outvoted.
The only possible explanation as to why there is so much disparity in wealth, and why the people as a whole have so little viable power, is that the very rich are part and parcel of a government that they run for their exclusive benefit; of which, the democratic votes that people make are often either of no material consequence, or of no effect; and this oligarchy does a masterful job of convincing the people that they a choice, when however, the coin flips, the people always lose, and the puppet masters always win, because money buys influence, propaganda, and all the votes that are needed for them to win.