The only real way to withdraw consent would be political violence.
The key upside of democracy imo is then that most people do not see a reason to use violence; They can vote and never need to withdraw consent that extremely.
And we rarely see meaningful change anywhere because electing politicians is barely connected to the actual outcomes people want.
Now we have a pacified populace that allows corruption to run freely and keeps repeating "violence is never the answer" while forgetting meaningful change almost always requires it.
Never forget we wouldn't even have weekends if people hadn't died for it.
I wish we never needed violence but it seems to be wishful thinking rather than reality. Will people oppose the next Hitler by ranting on Twitter and peaceful protests? Something tells me that won't work.
This. The fact that people in Europe and the US had to fight tooth and nail for workers rights and were opposed by a conglomerate of government force, corporate powers and organized crime gets all to easily forgotten.
The key upside of democracy imo is then that most people do not see a reason to use violence; They can vote and never need to withdraw consent that extremely.