On a slightly related note, the terms Democrat and Republican, referring to political parties, have almost nothing to do with the terms democrat and republican, referring to types of government.

Remember the USSR (The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) or the German Democratic Republic (a.k.a. Communist East Germany)? These countries also had representative forms of government, so they were indeed republics, but the candidates for representative were essentially handpicked Communist party members. Technically, they may have been elected by the people, but since representatives were not freely or fairly elected in a competitive process, these countries were not democratic–republics perhaps, but not democratic ones.

The Soviet Union and East German republics were certainly governed by the “rule of law,” but I don’t think very many citizens in those countries were allowed to own their own house or car. To redefine the term republic as describing some type of libertarian heaven seems misguided to me.

I think I can understand where this sentiment is coming from however. Whether you blame politicians or the media or both, the political middle ground has been slowly disappearing and we are becoming increasingly polarized. With moderate voices drowned out, it’s easy to feel oppressed if your party doesn’t happen to be the one currently in power. If you don’t fully identify with either party, it’s easy to feel completely alone and oppressed by both sides.

This is what the President was talking about in his speech and why many people of all political persuasions found it moving. I think it was very wise and I think history will look back on him as being one of our greatest leaders. I hope and pray that he succeeds in healing our country and bringing us together again. It shouldn’t take a 911 or a war to unite us. We don’t need to agree on everything, but we can cooperate, listen to each other, and try to find a way forward together.

I think we need to have more faith in our representative democracy and work within the system to change things we don’t like. I don’t think it serves our country well to call for a revolution or to threaten to move to Canada every time the political wind shifts away from our sails.

Democracy: government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

Republic: a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.

There are difference of nuance there, and different historical sources, but the overlap in the meanings of the two terms is very broad. I was taught that democracies tend to vest power directly in the voters, whereas a republic tends to do it indirectly via representatives, but there are all kinds of gray there, and neither definition matches your nonsensical scenarios.