To the editor:

I read the column “Democracy is a beautiful practice” in the Jan. 4 issue of the Pine Knot News and noticed the whole argument is based on a falsehood: that the United States is a democracy. It never was a democracy nor was it intended to be a true democracy. The United States is a federal republic, also known as a constitutional republic. It is “federal” in that it has a single national government as well as a collection of states and territories, each with its own government and empowered to enact local laws. It is a “republic” in that voters elect representativ...