You cannot say with any certainty that Socrates was anything other than a rhetorical device created by Plato. If he did live, however, he would have served his country in the war with Sparta, and so was a decorated veteran. He had earned the right to speak. Have you?

The Republic does not argue against democracy so much as it argues FOR a well-ordered society. Most of his arguments, Meno for example, are sleight-of-hand. He showed up the young men of Athens for the fools that they were. He would do the same for you. Read The Apology, fool.