Some Republicans have been defensive that the party has a strong anti-democratic bent. But the state GOP convention embraced it, writes columnist Danny Westneat.
A country is considered a republic when it's government in comprised of representatives of the citizen body. But how should those representatives be selected? The concept of "republic" does not specify how. You could choose them through democratic means; You could elect a president who in turn selects the representatives; or you could have them be chosen based on who is the richest. That would still be a republic.
Democracy comes from the Greek demos, which means people or district, and kratos, which means power. Democracy is when the power is on the people.
Republic simply says the government should be ruled by representatives of the citizen body, Democracy states how those representatives should be selected.
Sure, and historically the democracy in most early republics wasn't a whole lot better, but it doesn't change the fact that America is and was founded as a representative democratic republic.
How representative it is has only increased, and anyone trying to reverse that trend needs to water the tree of liberty.
This one talks a lot about democracies and republics, and argues against deomcracies in favour of republics, e.g. " The error which limits republican government to a narrow district has been unfolded and refuted in preceding papers. I remark here only that it seems to owe its rise and prevalence chiefly to the confounding of a republic with a democracy, applying to the former reasonings drawn from the nature of the latter. The true distinction between these forms was also adverted to on a former occasion. It is, that in a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person; in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, consequently, will be confined to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region."
America was always an anti-democratic project. I think that's a fair reading of the historical documents, as they're fairly explicit about it. The alternative explanation is that it was supposed to be a democracy but somehow got perverted along the way by something, by parties ("faction"), by capital, or something else. But I think it's simple and supportable to say it just never was one in the first place, by design.
PS: Easy to find that the word 'democracy' was used as a pejorative among the founders of the country:
they’re a constitutional republic… not a democracy…
Its such a tired line, coughed up by people who aren't familiar with what "democracy" or "republic" actually mean.
Screaming about the Tyranny of the Deep State while doggedly insisting American democracy isn't supposed to exist in the first place. Barking like rabid dogs, because you see Chinese Communists and Radical Islamic Extremists hiding in every shadow, while insisting we bring in more cheap oil and manufactured goods to subsidize our consumer economy. Angry memaws and pepes demand their kids pump out more blue-eyed blonde-haired babies to Save The White Race, but nobody wants to spend another thin dime on Medicaid or public daycare or curb the crippling economic impact of higher education.
The contradictions in the American system are really rearing their ugly heads.
I'm merely saying the message... these people go on vibes-based analysis/superstructure, though subconsciously, in their heart, they want to protect their settler-colonial interests of the economic base
I mean, the classification of 'white' was probably invented to do so...
It keeps fucking changing. You've got anti-Castro Afro-Cubans running around self-identifying as white. You've got East Indian crypto-scammers identifying as white. You've got FOB Taiwanese and Filipino ex-pats who barely speaking a lick of English identifying as white. You've got Latino used-car dealers and LA Deputy gang members identifying as white.
Meanwhile, Republicans still joke about pasty faced Bill Clinton being our First Black President.
The term exists entirely as an excuse to do violence to one's neighbors.
They say that ONLY because the word republic sounds like Republican and democracy sounds like Democrat...it doesn't go any deeper...that is why it has appeal to them, not the facts behind it.