I understood that which is why I asked if you understood the importance of voting.
They were concerned not about "mob rule" but about a dictator rising up from democracy and taking hold - because Socrates in Plato's Republic says that and advocates for a Republic to prevent this (and our government is based off these ideas). Obviously I disagree and often point out that the worst criticism of democracy is that it may become something else like fascism. That's just funny - people hating democracy because it might end.
They literally believed the laws were living documents that should often be rewritten by the people.
People DID vote and advocate for freeing the slaves, to give people the right to vote, to give women the right to vote, to give disabled people rights, to give queer people rights - that we gained these actually proves via your own argument that this wasn't a completely fascist set up. That it matters who can vote or not is huge, because jit means voting matters.
They had a list of why they opposed the king - things like no taxation without representation (aka fascism). Obviously the best (and arguably ONLY) representation is self representation.
Again, no one said they were perfect or even correct or even fully not fascist. But the progress they made and the actions they took indeed contributed to human rights and empowering the people, which resulted in what we would call today as antifascist actions.
And again, many indeed did advocate for freeing the slaves. And many more were selfish pricks who didn't, and so as the future people, it's our job to take the good things they did, learn from it, and address the bad stuff.