Democracy and capitalism are like a lion and a bull pulling a sled together. The bond holding the substantive in balance to the procedural is always a fragile one. In our system of laws, this balance creates justice. Our most thoughtful judges know what the public does not, that substantive without procedural justice, for example, the lynching of a guilty man, is not justice. Means and ends, roads and endings, must be in harmony with each other.
Democracy is a consensual hallucination of people concerned with how to divide opportunity fairly.
It makes a tremendous difference to know that in our country you have a shot, at least, at being president or Rockefeller. A Martian visiting earth would not be able to see democracy. It is intangible, a rulebook we have agreed to which says that no-one shall be denied opportunity, freedom of speech, or the due process of the laws. Some will come at it with more on the ball than others. If society is not hanging around our neck like an anvil and we are honest with ourselves, we will be content.