Democracy v Republic?

A Michigan state legislator, whose name I don't remember, has made some proposals about the teaching of history in state K-12 schools.  I heard him briefly on the radio this AM where he was explaining/defending his proposals which were in this AM's newspaper.  I haven't read the article and only heard his proposal to remove "democracy" as a descriptor of the US form of government.

According to him, some committee of school teachers couldn't defend "democracy" as a way to describe our government; they couldn't give one example.  The legislator wants the term "democracy," for instance, as in "core democratic values" (with which I have some problems, but those are for another day), to be replaced by "republic."  He claims the US is not a democracy, but a "Constitutionally-mandated republic."  This is an old canard which I have addressed in the past, but apparently it needs to be explained again.

Yes, we are a "Constitutionally-mandated republic."  I can't imagine anyone arguing otherwise.  But I also can't imagine anyone but the ignorant arguing we are not a democracy as well.  It's not as if describing our government one way precludes another description.  For instance, an apple is red (or green or golden or......), but it can also be described as round or roundish, tart or sweet, etc.  An apple can be all of these.  So can our system of government.

The term "republic" stems from two Latin words, res publica, to describe the form of government the Romans used from about 509 BC to 27 BC, give or take a few years.  It means "thing of the people."  Generally, today, a republic is a form of government where authority rests with the people who choose representatives to govern them.  OK, that fits for the US.  (Hmmm......  But what about the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the German Democratic Republic, etc.?  They certainly weren't "things of the people."  And although there may have been elections in those nations, they certainly weren't legitimate.  But that's for another time.)  Democracy comes from two Greek words, demos and kratia, meaning the people rule or have power.  And that, too fits for the US.  Ultimate authority for government in our system rests with the people.  Note the very first three words to the Constitution, that document those who insist we are not a democracy point to as a "Constitutionally-mandated republic." The Preamble begins, "We the People......"  It doesn't, but I suppose could have, been written, "The government" or "The President" or "Congress" or, especially in light of the fear many Founders had of a central government, "We the States......"  No, it reads, "We the People......"

Of course we don't have a direct democracy.  That would have been impossible then and even more so now. There have been very few direct democracies in history--and, in fact, very few democracies compared to other types of government systems.  We have a representative democracy or indirect democracy, perhaps best described as a republican democracy.  The people elect representatives to do their government work for them.

Note our two political parties:  Democrats and Republicans.  The Democrats were originally the Jeffersonian Republicans, later rechristened the Democratic Republicans, and finally, when the National Republicans briefly emerged as a second party, just the Democrats.  I suppose they could have called themselves the Republicans, sticking with their origins of the Jeffersonian/Democratic Republicans.  (This was in the 1820s.  The Republican Party was not founded until 1854.)  So......

Make of this as you will.  I'm not surprised a politician, any politician doesn't know this.  But I'm also not surprised the teachers on this committee, according to the politician, couldn't defend "democracy."  I suppose if politicians are critical of the quality of education, if this is an example, they need look no farther than the quality of their own educations.