Well, just to be wonky, we actually don’t live in a democracy, we live in a republic. So technically we are all republicans. :-)

Touché :-)

To be totally clear though, there’s Jellies that do live in democracies.
We don’t all do, but some.

@rebbel I wasn’t aware there were any true democracies. I’d be curious where you are thinking? All first world countries have some form of republic from what I can think of.

Geez, are we splitting hairs today… :-)
Nations that have democratically chosen governments?

We have a representative elected govt.

A small-d democrat is someone who supports democracy, not just anyone who happens to live in one.

And since this seems to come up all the time, the United States is a democracy. It’s also a federation, a republic, a presidential system, and a constitutional state. None of these terms are mutually exclusive.

^^Yes, that is true. The United States is a Constitutional Republic, and by no means is it fully a democracy. It’s supposed to be for the people. And everything was created to limit the powers of government and see to it that everybody has rights.
I don’t think the parties mean you support democracies over republics if you are a democrat and vice versa. I think they are just names.

de·moc·ra·cy
/dəˈmäkrəsē/

noun

a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

re·pub·lic
/rəˈpəblik/

Noun

a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.

Again, none of these terms are mutually exclusive. The United States is a democracy, full stop. It is also a republic, full stop. In fact, it is a democratic republic (as well as several other things). There’s no such thing as a “full democracy” or a “true democracy” (though there are direct democracies and representative democracies, both of which are fully and truly democracies).

@SergeantQueen “I don’t think the parties mean you support democracies over republics if you are a democrat and vice versa. I think they are just names.”

Exactly correct. If you go back far enough, the Democratic Party was originally called the Democratic-Republican Party. And when the Republican Party was formed, it was the liberal party in the country. “Democrat” and “Republican” (with capital letters) are just team names, like the Yankees and the Red Sox. That’s what is so ridiculous about partisanship: it’s allegiance to a banner and a brand instead of a set of principles and policies.

Not a chance. Most of us can’t distinguish democracy from soap bubbles.

No. There are quite a few people longing for a strong Führer.