It is though. You can look at so many measures from perception of democracy among the citizens, the degree to which power is devolved to the local level most answerable to the community, and the turnover of elected officials being far higher than western democracies which usually feature politicians with what amounts to lifelong tenure.

People actually think China is still run the way it was back in the 1960s because their world view is formed from memes. It’s a democracy and a more vibrant one than what we usually see in the west.

But someone will reply to this with a meme about social credit without realizing they don’t earn Reddit gold here.

The US government is structured such that, although it operates as a democracy, you don't feel like you have that much control over how the government operates.

The US wants to invade Iraq? Alrighty then. California wants to dump $100 billion into a single rail line? Sure. Boston wants to defund transit until it literally catches on fire? Why not. Across every level of government, you're sort of left wondering who they're listening to.