It is a democracy. People vote for elected leaders. It's a deeply troubled democracy with a laundry list of items that could make it a more effective representa

It is a democracy. People vote for elected leaders. It's a deeply troubled democracy with a laundry list of items that could make it a more effective representative democracy but that doesn't make it, say, an authoritarian government where the people have no voice in any capacity. The efficacy of peaceful protests in enacting change is orthogonal to whether the US is a democracy "in any form" or not.