Comments by "Digital Nomad" (@digitalnomad9985) on "Larry Elder just BLEW this guy's mind on Trump!!" video.
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Darn it as much as you like democracy is not socialism. Wanting to save democracy in the US is not the same thing as classifying the US as a democracy. Democratic election of representatives and officials in the Federal government and the requirement for the states admitted to have a representative form of government were just one among many, even if the most profound and radical, means of DISPERSING POWER. Often the the system of the US republic is compared unfavorably with a parliamentary system, for instance, on the grounds of efficiency. The parliamentary supposedly more rapidly implements the sense of the majority. Such critics are mistaking a means for an end. The founders of the US constitutional republic were concerned with dissipating power, of keeping it from being concentrated and thus facilitating tyranny. Democracy is just one, even if the most important and radical, of the means to this end. "Checks and balances" were placed throughout the system. Gridlock is a feature, not a bug. Democracy may well be necessary for freedom, but it is certainly INSUFFICIENT.
That being said, it is absurd to berate anybody who refers to the US democracy, or discusses the democratic aspect of our government. Classifying the US and other Western nations under the generalization "democracies" is a useful and, as far as it goes, valid usage. For one thing, no 2 critics who dogmatically insist that the US be referred to exclusively as a "republic" and never as a "democracy" posit the same definition (if they posit any at all) of what "republic" means. Often, they are fuzzy on the definition of "democracy" as well. The term "republic" is better as a description of the US, but in some contexts, particularly when discussing voting, or grouping our closest allies by common values, democracy is an important concept. It is the left, not conservative Constitutionalists, who are in the business of banning words.
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