People can differ on whether America is governed by an oligarchy or a representative democracy or something in between, but from the start we have had a problem with minority rule.
The Founders expected leadership roles to be limited to college-educated white males with financial assets. Women, people of color, poor males, the enslaved and Amerindians could not vote. A minority ruled.
What makes a representative democracy or even an oligarchy function is a shared belief that majority rules. Yet in my lifetime four American presidents have been taken power without winning a majority of the votes: Truman, Clinton, Dimwitted Bush and tRump. The last two actually ran second.
What today's majority of voters wants (universal health care, no forced birth, an end to racism) has been attacked by Wall Street Republicans, allied with religious reactionaries, Fascists, white supremacists and morons. That's a shrinking vote. It's not a majority. But they win by hook or mostly by crook. Today that minority rules a teetering, top-heavy nation that may be about to tumble down. Or change and become more sturdy.
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