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At the time our founding fathers created our form of government, the term “republic” was used to distinguish us from a monarchy form of government as existed in England.

The gold-standard for definitions of words in the English language is the Oxford English Dictionary. OED provides the following definitions of democracy. It shows the earliest English usage of the word commencing in 1531.

DEMOCRACY
“1. Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in the small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them. In modern use often more vaguely denoting a social state in which all have equal rights, without hereditary or arbitrary differences of rank or privilege.”
“2. That class of the people which has no hereditary or
special rank or privilege; the common people (in reference to their political power).”

Political extremists such as the Birch Society claim that our Founding Fathers distrusted and detested democracy but Thomas Jefferson and James Madison named the political party they founded the “Democratic-Republican Party”.

Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to I.H. Tiffany in 1816, which certainly contradicts the understanding Birchers et al regarding ancient Greek “democracy” versus what our Founding Fathers thought.

With respect to the Greeks, Jefferson wrote:
“They had just ideas of the value of personal liberty, but none at all of the structure of government best calculated to preserve it. They knew no medium between a democracy (the only pure republic), and an abandonment of themselves to an aristocracy or a tyranny independent of the people.”
Birchers like JBS founder Robert Welch make much of the difference between a democracy and a republic but Thomas Jefferson (as shown above) used the terms interchangeably.

To Kercheval in 1816, Jefferson wrote:
“I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.”

Hmmm-—sounds like Jefferson harbored some animosity toward persons of wealth and how they might use their wealth for their own selfish interests instead of the commonweal. Does that mean Jefferson was a “socialist” in the Birch Society scheme of things?

Birchers et al vehemently proclaim their belief in our “Constitutional Republic” form of government.

The Ku Klux Klan ALSO proclaims its devotion to our basic Constitutional principles. For example, see the text of the recruitment flyer most frequently used by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi—the most violent Klan in our nation’s history.

Among the reasons it gives for joining the White Knights are:

“#8: Because it is a pro-American organization that opposes any thing, person, or organization that is un-American.
#9: Because it is an organization that is sworn to uphold the lawful Constitution of the United States of America.”
The flyer also proclaims the KKK’s devotion to:
“Our governmental system is a Constitutional Republic, primarily designed to protect the Responsible Individual Citizens from all tyranny...”

Obviously, GENERALIZATIONS are worthless. As discussed above, one can vehemently proclaim one’s devotion to a “Constitutional Republic” while simultaneously enslaving an entire category of human beings and/or committing acts of barbarism against one’s fellow countrymen.

Consequently, the FORM of government should NOT be the primary concern. Instead, it is the UNDERLYING VALUES that require our scrutiny.

Individuals and nations that genuinely subscribe to democratic values are indisputably more tolerant and more accepting of politically diverse ideas. Furthermore, they place more value upon human life and they more readily recognize the legitimacy of alternative viewpoints, as well as the need for compromise within society.

Merely proclaiming one’s belief in a “Republic” tells you nothing whatsoever! And, in fact, many of the most tyrannical governments in history were organized as “republics” !