In a Facebook discussion, someone objected to my saying that America is no longer a democracy. They said it was never intended to be. It was always intended to be a republic. And they pointed to this piece, on the difference between a democracy and a republic.

Democracy or Republic?

They define a republic as a “constitutional democracy”. It limits the majority rule to not trespass on individual rights. They say a republic IS democratic, but is not “a democracy”. To them, in a democracy, the majority, even 51%, has absolute power.

Technically, America was meant to be a republic.

1. That definition of “democracy” is not common parlance. I looked it up in websters.com (democracy, republic) and thefreedictionary.com (democracy, republic). They list no such distinction. The definition of democracy in the latter does have “majority rule” as the 4th definition. And it is absent from the definition of republic.
2. In the US, a super-majority can change the constitution.
3. The main point- no one’s arguing for 51% rule or an end to constitutional law.
   In America, the people no longer have power.

Today America is neither a democracy nor a republic.

We have a political system that creates laws for those with money and power. Or so said the 2014 Princeton study. America is not a republic and hasn’t been one for years. (I think their study went back to the 1970’s)