Where did this ever work out? It’s extremely common that policies are universally hated by the people, yet the people in power do it anyway.

Switzerland.

America isnt really a democracy it's a plutocracy.

Just for example. When the elite drives all their opponents into poverty and sends them to rot in prison for the slightest outcry, that's anything but democracy.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/swiss-lgbtq-groups-...

That's the paradox of tolerance for you; we must be intolerant of those that are intolerant... but you probably already know that Karl Popper theorized that [0]. Just looking around globally, we seem to be at that inflection point where this isn't mere hypothesis, but theory or law:

"Popper posited that if intolerant ideologies are allowed unchecked expression, they could exploit open society values to erode or destroy tolerance itself through authoritarian or oppressive practices."

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

> That's the paradox of tolerance for you

That's not a paradox of tolerance, it is the anti-democratic practice of fascism.

> they could exploit open society values to erode or destroy tolerance itself through authoritarian or oppressive practices.

This is exactly my point: an emerging fascist government through authoritarian or oppressive practices destroys tolerance by silencing people for any words that go against their agenda. There is no paradox here.

The way real democracies punish bad people is really upsetting to bad people.

"Soral was convicted repeatedly in France and sentenced to jail time in 2019 for denying the Holocaust, which is a crime in France." Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

The Nordic countries are pretty ok functioning democracies, with many smaller political parties. And pretty high taxes

(What do you refer to with "this"?)

Those two things don’t sound mutually exclusive to me.

That's just one particular set of preferences. Different people have different priorities.