Democracy isn't homogeneous.

There are many democratic nations on earth, many variations on theme.

Churchill today might note that US democracy is the worst form of democratic Government being structurally doomed to spiral into a two party K-hole despite being setup by people largely vehemently opposed to party politics.

Perhaps worst is overstating "old", "tired", "dated", "failed to scale", "doesn't encourage representative government".

It's not a choice between one form of democracy and authoritarian Stalinism. There's a far broader chice between many forms of democracy - some of those that embrace plurity of choice and reject unlimited legal bribery by very small very rich vested interests might be worth a look.