JL, I'll give it a try. The source for my working definition of "democracy" is derived from a book by the late Professor of Anthropology, David Graeber, "The Democracy Project". As (intentional) members of society, we agree to work together to find consensus on what to do about anything that affects all of us, or some of us. As with other difficult problems, we need to work at achieving consensus. And we can get good at it.

David Graeber uses Occupy Wallstreet as his intellectual laboratory. He was one of the "organizers". He talks about anarchists, emphasizing the lowercase "a", meaning that if we are anarchists, we are self-governing, and we work together to devise ways to agree on how we should conduct ourselves in our society.

As it turns out, we are more accurately described as a republic, or a constitutional republic, or a democratic republic. If we were a true democracy, we could each vote on matters of public policy. To offer one example of the difference between our republic and what would happen instead if we were a democracy, consider the issue of a woman's right to have sovereignty over her own body. In our republic, a relative handful of (mostly) men have established rules to government pregnancy. But if we were a true democracy, if the polling can be believed, women especially would vote overwhelmingly for personal sovereignty over their own bodies, and many men would side with those women as well.

What is government? We strive to be a self-governing nation. We elect and appoint people to manage the affairs of state, who govern by consent of the governed.

What is freedom? Good question. In our Declaration, Jefferson used the phrase "the pursuit of happiness". There is a good book, "Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality" by Danielle Allen. She discusses the idea that the "pursuit of happiness" is a general term designed to allow every citizen to devote their life to whatever they find makes them happy, or fulfilled. "Pursuit" is used, I believe, because economic realities often prevent us from pursuing what we would really like to do, instead of what we must do to pay the cost of living in our economy.

What is government supposed to do? President Lincoln said "...The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves—in their separate, and individual capacities..." (I learned about that quote here in HCR's commentariat, and if asked, I would have said it was from you, J L.)

As for what is for sale, and what is not for sale, that's a good question. My opinion is that we should be mindful of Earth's finite natural resources, and we should adopt an ethical and moral stance that we should minimize our consumption of irreplaceable natural resources for the sake of future inhabitants of this planet.