The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."―Alexis de Tocqueville
This is why Lenin said, "Democracy is indispensable to socialism."
Because when politicians figure out they can use government money to "bribe" voters by promising them stuff, you eventually get socialism because voters will not be swayed by these promises.
Forget the fact that these things rarely manifest the way people want and how little checks and balances there are between what a candidate says and what they do when they hold office. (Actually, there are no checks.)
So people vote then go about their lives until the next candidate comes around and again stokes their flame of discontent as they create a victim narrative and pray on the Us vs. Them tribalism built into human nature. And the cycle repeats.
This is how you get the divisive and unproductive political system you have today. And it's only going to get worse.
America was founded as a republic yet we are inching towards socialism one day, one bad tweet, one pandering speech, one headline promoting the idea that America is racist, and one brainwashed individual at a time convinced they can make socialism "work this time."