So what’s the real reason Republicans say we’re not a democracy, we’re a republic?

Its simple enough.. Democracy implies majority rule. A Republic inserts a level of management (states or an electoral college) and works its "Majority" from that. Hence the Trump being legitimate with less than a majority of the vote. So not all votes have the same value.

Modern politics and labels aside, a Republic is basically a representative democracy as opposed to a pure democracy where every citizen voted on every little thing.

Our founders had a real fear of democracies, and "mob rule" and that, along with the Hamiltonian/New England v. Jeffersonian/Virginian, stuff all played into a lot of discussions including the "compromise" where the less populous south got to count non voting slaves as 3/5 of a person.

My guess is this point came up talking about the popular vote and the electoral college, which was a choice to elect leaders by representatives rather than "democratically", I.e., by popular vote.

There are more registered democrats in fewer but bigger states than there are Republicans in smaller states, so you might hear democrats calling for a popular vote with Republicans saying that the founders never intended a democracy, but a Republic.

Republicans are not wrong on this one, IMO, but we've been arguing about how "United" the States should be since before the Constitution was enacted, and how voting should work, and we've tweaked it before, both by Amendment and by practice.

I have never heard a mainstream Republican actually talking about disenfranchisement in a Republic, but by picking electors by state as well as by population, and then letting the States decide how theyre going to pick their electors and cast their votes,we are making some individual votes "count more" than other votes and that is less "democratic."


Hope that helps. These days, it's really hard to figure out what people are talking about, and a lot of the time, they're repeating words, phrases and arguments they've heard on cable TV without even understanding what they're saying, being able to apply it in any given context.

Neither Hannity nor Maddow is a good substitute for a civics class, IMO.

How shall one determine the majority? Simple one person one vote works very well in a small enough region or a simple question. However as is noted often that a small region with a large population can reflect its concerns onto a large area with fewer people that don't have the same issues. Say traffic jams in NYC causing the population to decree no cars everywhere including say Montana. How does a nation prevent that? The US republic has three elected roles. The House, the Senate and the Executive. The House representatives are elected by popular vote in a district. The Senate is elected by popular vote in a state. The executive is elected by popular vote by county and by state. The three different electoral methods provide a fair and balanced result. In Canada the election is by popular vote by riding only. The senate is appointed and does not represent the provinces equally. The PM (executive) is the leader of the party that wins the most seats and his/her selection as leader is by popular vote within the political party. The average voter in Canada has no say in the Senate or the executive and all kinds of corruption results. The present PM has been proven to have run afoul of the conflict of interest and likely broke the law regarding obstruction of justice. Sadly he is virtual dictator and there is no means of firing him before the next election. Even then he can be re-elected if the people vote for the party he leads and the party does not remove him as their leader. The US has a vastly superior electoral system even though it is seriously flawed.

The difference between a republic and a democracy is the extent to which the citizens have any control over their government.

A republic requires a set of rules for the government to follow, such as a constitution. While some people might argue that the people have to have a say in the governmental process, technically a republic doesn't require that. A republic could theoretically have a system for selecting legislatures and executives and whatnot that didn't involve the citizenry at all. For example, in the US originally, senators were not elected, and even today, the president is not selected by popular vote; the members of the electoral college can select whomever they want to be president without regard to what the people vote for.

A democracy, in contrast, requires that the will of the people guides the government. In a direct democracy, that would mean the citizens would need to vote for every individual law that was proposed, which might work in a small village but probably would be cumbersome in a large nation.

What we have in the US can best be described as a representative democracy, a system that takes some ideas that might be called "republican" and some ideas that might be called "democratic" and smooshes them together into the buttfuckery we enjoy today.

Not correct. A Republic is not meant to disenfranchise anyone. A Republic is a form of government in which the people elect representatives to "represent" their interests. The decisions are not made directly by the populous.

Are you not a democratic republic?

Because we elect politicians, a true democracy means that everyone would vote on everything.

Mostly anybody who says we’re a republic instead of a democracy says it because it’s true.

It all harks back to that troublesome document, the Constitution.

There are very good reasons for the republic choice as opposed to a democracy. The issue was carefully considered by the framers. The big issue I see is a lack of understanding of how the country was designed to work in the first place and how far off from that design we are now. The states are intended to be quasi independent and equal in standing in the republic. The dominance of federal control we currently have is the exact opposite of the design.

It's simpler than that. "Republic" has the same root as Republican; "democracy" has the same root as Democratic. So by saying that, they're indirectly saying that the Republican Party is the natural and only legitimate ruling party of the US.

I've no idea but it's a good question. I hope you get some good answers.