So while reading conversations between burgerlanders I’ve repeatedly stumbled upon a very specific set of bizarre and nonsensical set phrases (memes?):
- The US is a republic, not a democracy
- The US is a democracy, not a republic
- Democrats want a democracy, Republicans want a republic
- The US is neither a republic nor a democracy
What the fuck? I can’t even begin to untangle how wrong and nonsensical these phrases are, or what the thought process is to oppose these two words as if they’re mutually exclusive. Yes, yes, I know the US is not democratic from the perspective of us leftists, but from a neutral/liberal standpoint, well, it is a kind of bourgeois democracy, they present themselves as the gold standard for democracy, and one of their most famous (and ironic) imperial mottos that both parties absolutely love is “freedom and democracy”. Also, of course the US is a republic, what else would they be? A kingdom? Have they looked at pretty much every other country in the world with “Republic” in the name? Are none of them democracies? Not even the ones in The West™? The parties’ names are, as I take it, just historic names that don’t really say anything about political lines nowadays.
I know the US educational system sucks and that the average American is really politically ignorant, but where does this specific meme come from, and why is it so common? I don’t know why, but of all things burgerland, this one particularly bugs me a lot. Help me, comrades.
It was the line of choice for people who support the US electoral college system because it allows for republican presidential candidates who receives millions of votes less than their opponent to win national elections. The idea being that honoring the popular vote would be indicative of a democracy and not a republic. Of note that the founding fathers used the terms democracy and republic interchangeably, as was common at the time. But that’s the extent of how deep it goes. It’s simply a convenient gotcha statement for a certain type of ignorant reactionary.
I get what you’re trying to say, but it’s still so nonsensical to me that my brain just doesn’t accept it as an explanation. It’s like saying “I’m a human, not an individual”. Thanks though.
And it’s especially stupid because then you have the same Republicans using “democracy” as their main talking point for imperialist intervention.
It’s certainly a silly thing for someone to say coming from the perspective of a person with an understanding of political history and basic terminology, but there’s no coherent political thinking to be found here. People do not read basic civics documents, let alone have any sort of rational grounding for their political decisions. The gotcha statement is devoid of meaning but it derails any conversation about how republicans consistently receive fewer votes in presidential elections, which makes them feel bad.