At some point I think we went off the rails and decided that democracy has to occur at every level of a public project. E.g. First the governor announces a vision, then the legislature allocates funds, then it goes to a design committee, etc, on down the line. At each level we try to get public participation, and at each level just a few loud voices can derail the whole thing for an indefinite amount of time.
Perhaps we could reign that in. Democracy is how we elect leaders. If enough of our leaders decide to do something, then we do it. Maybe we have one public comment period for really big projects. But it gets done. Don't like what they did? Vote them out.
The US was setup as republic for reasons that are becoming more and more apparent. We used to select representatives for a town or locality that would then group together and select representatives for the next level, etc. Much of this was due to communication limitations at the time, but there's something to be said to saying "I trust Bob here to make good decisions on my behalf" instead of everyone injecting themselves into every aspect of everything.
All I can to personally is not vote for or against these various things.
Perhaps we could reign that in. Democracy is how we elect leaders. If enough of our leaders decide to do something, then we do it. Maybe we have one public comment period for really big projects. But it gets done. Don't like what they did? Vote them out.