This applies to either.

The democracy we need threatens those in power.

What say does the average poor person in your town have? To endorse someone they cant control? To choose from amongst the few candidates that the big interests have developed and then cross their fingers??

Letting individuals control production creates a divided society, one of workers and one of owners.

Where one has unequal leverage over the other but are supposed to (on paper) exist on the same democratic level.

Mom and pop shops may come your mind, or someone who owns a franchise or small business, the truth is that even small business owners are nearly wholly beholden to large capital and huge finance capital.

What say does a walmart employee have compared to the owners of walmart?

While you were learning about what the hell the electoral college is, some others were being trained on how to lobby effectively.

Mass democracy threatens the status quo almost entirely.

There does not exist a party for the people. And if it were to exist it would be outlawed and threatened like they have been in the past.

Would you suppress a peoples party if you had billions on the line?

Exactly. We are designed so that those with more power can play their games in DC and through out all the public offices in these states.

There is a reason why labor movements have been nearly completely wiped out from collective history.

Those who don't take this govts anti-socialist stance seriously must realize that the history of modern warfare and the history of anti-socialism share way too much space.

Mass democracy is a threat to the status quo.

You can't look at California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts--states who have these very long-term Democrat majorities, and tell me we have a representative anything! Those places will likely never turn back to any kind of balanced representative rule. They pass whatever the hell they want and the only pushback is through our Federal courts who often take years to produce meager relief.

It's not "getting bad" it "is bad."