The problem with America is...
...Americans.
People aren't smart. People don't make wise choices, not even necessarily choices in their own self-interest. Look at all the dumb, poverty-stricken white trash that rails against Obamacare because that's what they've been told to do.
Democracy has been used by humanity to inflict all manner of pain on ourselves, and is currently threatening us with a Trump presidency. Maybe democracy was just another apple in paradise.