This gets repeated again and again, but is just wrong.

The USA is both a representative democracy and a republic - the same as most other democracies on this planet.

Republic just means that the government is a public affair - there is no monarch. It's the opposite of a monarchy.

You are missing the point of my comment. The main focus is not the distinction between democracy and republic. It was that we do not govern ourselves directly. We elect people to do that for us because most of us aren't equipped to do it ourselves. The comment I was replying to called that fascism.

I removed the "We are not a democracy." line in my previous comment to refocus it on what I was really trying to say.

These kind of comments always get downvoted but it is pretty accurate. Certainly people like Madison didn’t want a thriving, egalitarian, democratic, civic culture and nation.

"But 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." -- Alexander Hamilton

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-01...

Aha. So you agree.