There are many reasons the Founders and Framers eschewed democracy as the framework for a national government and included instead elements of democracy within a republican framework. Still, along with its many flaws, democracy does have its shining golden moments. . .
Looking for the silver lining, I recall Alexis de Tocqueville’s comments on American society depending on voluntary associations and then I see all the VOLUNTEER efforts of private citizens in NC, etc., naturally contrasted with “feddle gummint” incompetence (that looks for all the world more like indifference, that most malicious of hates), and think to myself, “What do we REALLY need government for? Whatever it is, it ain’t this.”