Republicans often claim that the US is a republic and not a democracy. They use this argument to justify minority control of our institutions, primarily the Senate and House when they have majorities, and all presidential elections via the Electoral College. They believe that democracy implies “one person, one vote” which, if true, would keep them out of power.
Response:
The underlying premise of our polity starts with the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.”
After the defeat of the British, the Founding Fathers worked out the details of our to-be-democracy and decided that it should take the form of a democratic constitutional-republic (even though it was limited at the time to being just free white males who could vote). However, the Founding Fathers were also concerned with protecting minority rights. These were not minority rights as we understand it today—protections for trans people, immigrants, etc., but the rights of the opulent.
Accordingly, many of the Founders did not believe that the United States should be a direct democracy, which is how they understood happened in ancient Athens. They thought that that was very unstable and risky. Therefore, they established through the Constitution that elected officials would serve as representatives of the people, indirect but still founded as a democracy empowered by the will/vote of the citizens. Our government is not a republic as happened in ancient Rome. That “republic” which consisted of three parts (consuls, senate, and assembly) had only the assembly as a body elected by eligible citizens. Our Founders opted for means election based on the votes of citizens—walking and chewing gum at the same time.