What IS America?

[thesummerqueen]

So a couple days ago this conversation started on the Skeptalk e-mail list. One of the guys was discussing a family member objecting to his child reciting the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance (instead of our own) in Spanish class - like words have power. That's probably something I'll make another thread about, but in any case:

Along Rachel's line, reciting that USA is a Republic seems to have not ever seeped into the minds of the majority who think it's a Democracy.

Is there an informed, intelligent, concise argument for the notion of "The US is a R, not a D".

http://thisnation.com/question/011.html

I'll counter John's "thisnation.com" link with a Wikipedia link or two:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic#United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_democracy

Within the US, our form of government is generally referred to as a republic instead of a democracy because it's not a *direct* democracy. Apparently, though, this form of government is also properly known as a "representative democracy." I've also heard the US referred to as a "democratic republic." So it's not *quite* as simple as saying "this is not a democracy, it's a republic." It's essentially both, because "republic" alone doesn't necessarily imply that the republican government is formed democratically, whereas "democracy" alone suggests direct democracy.

Wikipedia suggests that *another* appropriate term would be "liberal republic."

The conversation has gone on for quite some time - what do you politically minded bastards ( ) think?