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Comment by orangepurple | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

Could you please stop posting in the flamewar style to HN, especially on flame-prone topics like partisan politics? We've already had to ask you this multiple times:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36668491 (July 2023)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29466650 (Dec 2021)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29282769 (Nov 2021)

We want curious conversation here, not denunciatory rhetoric, fulmination, putdowns etc. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules, we'd appreciate it.

p.s. No, this is not a function of which political side you're on. I don't know (I don't scan the comments for that) and it's the same either way.

Where does this idiosyncratic definition of “republic” come from that means something incompatible with “democracy”? I’ve heard it before (always in a US context), but the more usual definition of “republic” is just “a country whose head of state is not a monarch”.

I think it comes from very specific, narrow, idiosyncratic understandings of democracy (unconstrained majoritarianism, either direct or representative) and republicanism (government by elected and/or appointed magistrates each and collectively exercising well-defined, limited authority.) Its a view in which democracy, like absolute monarchy, is the rule of men, whereas republicanism is the rule of laws.

The only context I've seen is support for gerrymandering, stripping voting rights and support for the electoral college.

It also is a prominent defense of unequal (by population; equal by states) representation in the Senate as a desirable feature rather than a defect in the US’s Constitutional design.

But the Senate can pass a new dress code in 10 minutes.. it's amazing what they can get done if they actually want to

I wish I could buy you a beer.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

It's so refreshing to hear other people understand what's really happening. How can I subscribe to these rants?

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