Republic....
True.
Our Republic preserved the unpopular viewpoints they espoused all these decades but their cliche “democracy” would have crushed them long ago.
We gritted our teeth and accepted flag burnings, punks urinating on statues of Jesus, the Ten Commandments chisled off public buildings and gay “marriage” after 26 states had amendments guaranteeing one man one woman marriage on the books.
Their Chinese Communist style “democracy” would totally obliterate our rights.
Specifically we have been a federal republic. Republic without the federal modifier is a much wider category that includes systems that do not resemble our own.