Comments on More on "We, the people" and some great comments

Benjamin Franklin, one of the founders of the Republic that later became known as the United States of America, when asked what the founders had given the people, is reputed to have said: "We have given you a Republic. It remains to be seen if you will be able to retain it."

A republic is defined in Merriam-Webster Online as, "government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law."

Democracy, in the same dictionary, is defined as, "government by the people; especially, rule of the majority; a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections." Also, "the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority"and "the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges ."

For more on the original republic, see http://www.halexandria.org/dward265.htm

It seems, at this point, like we neither a republic or a democracy.