Elizabeth Warren's Recently Expressed View on Democracy

Just a few days ago I tuned in to one of the C-Span television channels...they not only broadcast live floor proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, but also feature committee hearings as well as advocacy speeches and conventions.  I happened to come across an American Civil Liberties Union meeting/convention, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was at the podium.  She was speaking about what she considered to be "democracy", citing first a long list of anti-Trump nationwide protest demonstrations that have transpired ever since his election.  But to Warren the numerous demonstrations, while to her being democracy in action, also had another "democratic" force to add to theirs: the ACLU's many lawsuits against Trump policies.  Now you can argue...and I might add, quite persuasively...that the protests as well as the legal challenges were appropriate, relevant, and called for to the better good of the country and its people.  But is this really what "democracy" is? 

I know a lot of people bandy about the word "democracy" in different ways.  Some, like my friend in Montana, will claim that the United States isn't and was never intended to be a democracy: it is a republic...I get his gist, he and I probably agree on the fundamentals, semantics aside.  And some, like Senator Warren, seem to equate with democracy the exercise of the First Amendment through protests and going through the judicial system.  To me, though...and I believe to a lot of other folks...democracy means the people governing themselves by electing representatives who they believe will pursue the same aims and philosophy to which they themselves adhere .  But for this to happen effectively, eligible voters need to CONSISTENTLY participate in whatever elections present themselves, be they for president, congress, governor, state legislature, or local; it's all crucial.  You don't only vote because you feel the "Bern" for a charismatic, trendy candidate and then ignore all the other races when your idol isn't on the ballot...you are reneging on your responsibilities as a citizen if you do this.  So when hundreds of thousands...sometimes more than a million...protesters take to the streets across the country with their signs and messages for this cause or that, these actions by themselves accomplish absolutely nothing when it comes to changing the politics coming out of elective offices.  They aren't exercising democracy: they are exercising their First Amendment right of free speech, something that I applaud regardless which "side" they're on.  The problem is when people elevate that form of expression over the power of the ballot box, which is the true expression of democracy, Elizabeth Warren's take on it all notwithstanding...