I am not going to claim that America is a democracy, but democracy is really only about elections. It does not even mean that everyone gets to vote. It just means that the people with the right to vote, vote freely and fairly and the outcomes are honored. The U.S.A. is purported to be a Republic with a representative democratic form of government. Where democracy fails to pass muster in the U.S. is the Plutocrats have control over who has any chance of winning so the electorate only has choices to vote for candidates selected by the plutocrats, the people already in power. At the national level the U.S. is barely a democracy if it is at all.

Democracy has nothing to do with putting the people first above aristocrats, but it does mean (per the U.S. constitution) that we don't have monarchs. The rich getting richer is the result of our democracy being perverted by the as you call them aristocrats, plutocrats, oligarhs or whatever name you want to use for them. The people with money and power have perverted our national elections to the point that only people who will make sure the rich get richer will be elected.

TEK