People arguing that America wasn't set up as a democracy . . .

[CousinIT]

UNROLLED Twitter thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1536295074614718466.html
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People arguing that America wasn’t set up as a democracy 🤦?♂️🤦?♂️

These people do not read. They do not know about history. ‘America Is a Republic, Not a Democracy’ Is a Dangerous—And Wrong—Argument. A Constitutional Republic is the argument today. I am astounded by the idiocy.

Enabling sustained minority rule at the national level is not a feature of our constitutional design, but a perversion of it.

The Constitution was meant to foster a complex form of majority rule, not enable minority rule.

The founding generation was deeply skeptical of what it called “pure” democracy and defended the American experiment as “wholly republican.” To take this as a rejection of democracy misses how the idea of government by the people, including both a democracy and a republic,
was understood when the Constitution was drafted and ratified.

When founding thinkers such as James Madison spoke of democracy, they were usually referring to direct democracy, what Madison frequently labeled “pure” democracy.

To those who are trending this “constitutional republic” nonsense today are beyond clueless and obviously do not know the difference between a direct democracy and a representative democracy. What people are calling a “constitutional republic” is actually the
representative democracy we have to today as clearly described by James Madison in Federlist No. 14. What this generation considered either a democracy or a republic is troublesome to us insofar as it largely granted only white men the full rights of citizens, albeit with some
exceptions. The history of democracy as grasped by the Founders, drawn largely from the ancient world, revealed that overbearing majorities could all too easily lend themselves to mob rule, dominating minorities and trampling individual rights.

Madison nevertheless sought to defend popular government, the rule of the many, rather than retreat to the rule of the few.

American constitutional design can best be understood as an effort to establish a sober form of democracy. It did so by embracing representation, the
separation of powers, checks and balances, and the protection of individual rights—all concepts that were unknown in the ancient world where democracy had earned its poor reputation.

The founders did not want a direct democracy, a pure rule of the people, they wanted a democracy where the people ruled through representatives. Alexander Hamilton made the case for popular government and even called it democracy: “A representative democracy, where the right
of election is well secured and regulated & the exercise of the legislative, executive and judiciary authorities, is vested in select persons, chosen really and not nominally by the people, will in my opinion be most likely to be happy, regular and durable.

The American experiment, as advanced by Hamilton and Madison, sought to redeem the cause of popular government against its checkered history. Given the success of the experiment by the standards of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, we would come to use the term democracy
as a stand-in for representative democracy, as distinct from direct democracy.

Consider that President Abraham Lincoln, facing a civil war, which he termed the great test of popular government, used constitutional republic and democracy synonymously, eloquently casting the
American experiment as government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

And whatever the complexities of American constitutional design, Lincoln insisted, “the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible.”

Indeed, Lincoln offered a definition of popular government that can guide our understanding of a democracy, or a republic today: “A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks, and limitations, and always changing easily, with deliberate changes of popular opinions and
sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.”

High-minded claims that we are not a democracy surreptitiously fuse republic with minority rule rather than popular government. Enabling sustained minority rule at the national level is not a feature of our
constitutional design, but a perversion of it.

Routine minority rule is neither desirable nor sustainable, and makes it difficult to characterize the country as either a democracy or a republic. We should see this as a constitutional failure demanding constitutional reform.

[Renaissance Man]

1. America

America is a democracy with a republican form of government.

[treestar]

2. I once argued with a nutcase

When they said that. A republic is a representative democracy. Got laughing emoji in response.

It is to protect a minority from the majority. That’s the bill of rights not minority rule.

[LeftInTX]

8. Forms of govt map...

Click for map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic#/media/File:Forms_of_government_2021.svg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_system

Blue is presidential system
Orange and red are parliament
Yellow is semi-presidential
I really don't know what light green is

Dark green, purples, brown and gray are not good.

[Emile]

3. It has always been a Democratic Republic. Funny how

Republicans have convinced people we have a republic.

[Aristus]

5. They're trying to make it sound like the name of their party is the relevant one for America.

When the truth is, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are called those because political parties need names. That's it.

[EYESORE 9001]

6. I wish I could rename their party

(Insert witticism here)

[uponit7771]

7. +1,

[Wounded Bear]

4. The original intent was to protect the political minority from being suppressed by the majority...

current repubs are exploiting this aspect of the system in order to set up permanent minority rule by one party.

[dlk]

9. A republic is a form of democracy...

n/t

[Zeitghost]

10. When the Constitution was established

Only one half of one branch of government was directly elected by the People, the House of Representatives. Senators and Electoral College voters for the presidency were appointed by state legislatures.