If people don't vote, democracy breaks.

In 2024, if Nobody was a candidate, they would have won handily.

Non-voters vastly outnumbered voters for both candidates.

Oh no, law is very much alive. It's rule of law that's dead.

and if
LAW=???
then
democracy=???
and thus
dead=???

The rule of law is not dependent on democracy, but it's super easy for the elite to circumvent the rule of law, even in democracy.

An example would be the Napoleonic code. Even after Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself Emperor of France, he established the Napoleonic code which declared that the same laws that applied to the commons also applied to bourgeoisie and even the emperor, himself.

Of course, the same thing that happens here in the states happened in post-revolutionary France, that those with means could muster a defense where those without could not, so the law could be circumvented with money and resources (and sometimes the power of force).

So it's a mess.

The rule of law -- that the law is applied equally to everyone, -- is an ideal that societies strive for, typically only with limited success. The challenges include yoking in those with ostentatious means who are able to escape justice or hire strong defenders, and elevating the destitute and the contemptible^†^ so that they can get true due process. In the US, since convictions advance careers (contrast, fair adjudications), prosecutors and judges tend to favor false convictions over ruling out innocent suspects brought to trial, which has created the plea-bargain epidemic throughout the US today.

† Suspects of heinous crimes often end up the subject of abuse, or of illegal search. The only way we enforce the protections provided by the fourth and fifth amendments to the Constitution of the United States (Wikipedia: Fourth; Fifth ) is by penalizing the state by allowing mistreated suspects to go free. And it's particularly odious when we know that the walking perp is guilty of baking children into pies. (We've also seen potential misuse of this when the justice system doesn't really want to convict someone, say a favored entertainer who is guilty of sexual misconduct. Ooops. )

As a result, police techniques that would constitute an illegal search become legal by precedent for having been used to bring in the most contemptible criminals and are then applied to people guilty of possession of controlled substances, and we end up with SWAT raids on black-community barbershops for their haircut licenses being out of order. We also get people convicted for eating jelly donuts because the $2 field drug test that reacts to cocaine also reacts to glazed sugar.

So rule of law is not only difficult to attain and preserve, but it very quickly deteriorates.

• Apes together strong.

Democracy is a tool for influencing the law. It's not something you want to lose.

You're not wrong though, there are very few tools left in the toolbox and the people in charge of the law now (not us) don't like them at all.

Based