What does democratic mean? Depends on who you ask but I’d say it’s fair that most people perceive the concept to mean “the people” are the government – whatever that means and regardless how obvious it is that that’s simply not the case. “The people” are “represented” by politicians in a congress or parliament who were elected by a majority vote. That is to say, the will of the majority over the will of the minority is perceived as the “best”, “fairest”, most “just” way to make political decisions.
Given this ideology, they believe that if the government isn’t doing what “the people” want, then “the people” can change it by protesting. They believe protesting to be their democratic right since after all, they are the government. So a group of like-minded people who want the government to change something coordinate their efforts, raise money, collect signatures, make signs and go out in public with megaphones and make speeches and chant and sometimes they sing songs, it’s all so commercial and theatrical , at least for the protestors and onlookers.
The politicians, on the other hand, have no incentive to engage or acknowledge the protestors based on the merits of the protested issue alone. Regardless what politicians do they cannot be fired and their salaries, benefits and money from lobbyists do not depend on whether “the people” are happy or not. If politicians appear to change their political policies in response to a protest, it’s for political expedience, there are political advantages for them. For every ten protests, maybe one will offer such political advantages and affect policy, maybe.
But if “the people” are the government and their “representatives” have already been chosen to “represent the people” and “the people” are protesting the political decisions of their “representatives”, aren’t “the people” effectively protesting themselves?
And if a small number of people, a minority, successfully influence political decisions by protesting, decisions that affect the entire country, isn’t that minority imposing their will on the majority? A clear contradiction to the ideology of a majority rule as the “best”, “fairest”, most “just” way to make political decisions in a democratic system even though it’s believed that protesting and its consequences are their right in a democratic system.
So in a democracy, the majority elects representatives and a minority can influence the representatives by protesting themselves.
Politics is for the infantile and the insane.