by James B. Greenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Founding Editor of the Journal of Political Ecology, and past president of the Political Ecology Society - https://substack.com/@jamesbgreenberg

[I find Greenberg's analysis insightful and instructive regarding an all too common reply--that often comes across as condescending and dismissive--by Trump loyalists to alarms being raised about the current, steady erosion of US democracy taking place. - jnj]

The Republic Myth: How a Weaponized Lie Is Undermining Democracy

The old lie that America isn’t a democracy is back—and it’s doing real damage.

My training as an anthropologist taught me to pay attention to the details most people overlook. So when Trump supporters insist that America is a republic, not a democracy—as if that settles the matter—I don’t hear a civics lesson. I hear a myth. A myth with history, purpose, and consequences. And like most myths, it survives not because it’s true, but because it’s useful.

This isn’t a debate over definitions. It’s a deliberate reframing. Strip the word “democracy” of its legitimacy, and you clear the path to replace it with something else. In this framing, democracy becomes mob rule. Disorder. Threat. And the solution? A strong hand, a singular will, a man who promises to save “the Republic” by dismantling the very thing that makes it one.

Anthropologists study how language shapes power. What’s said, what’s implied, what’s repeated. Discourse prepares the ground for action. It isn’t just commentary—it’s pretext. When right-wing media call democracy dangerous and cast Trump as the savior of the Republic, they’re not just telling a story. They’re normalizing the idea that democracy itself is the problem—and authoritarianism the cure.

But the historical record says otherwise. The Founders didn’t fear democracy because they equated it with chaos. They feared unchecked power—by kings, mobs, or capital. What they built was a representative system rooted in popular sovereignty. Rights were not designed to limit the people, but to protect them from domination. As Madison put it in Federalist No. 57, the aim of government is to elevate leaders who possess “the most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society.” Democracy wasn’t the threat. It was the answer to tyranny.

The U.S. is a constitutional republic built on democratic institutions—elections, representation, and the rule of law accountable to the people. The distinction isn’t between democracy and a republic, but between systems that serve the many and those that entrench the power of the few.

Still, the myth endures—revived whenever democracy expands. During Reconstruction. The New Deal. Civil Rights. And now, in the face of a multiracial, pluralistic electorate no longer willing to bow to inherited power.

The idea that the Founders rejected democracy is now pushed by those who see popular rule as a threat to their influence. It’s echoed by right-wing pundits, amplified by Murdoch-owned media, and laundered through think tanks dressed up as defenders of the Constitution. It’s embraced by Christian nationalists who fear demographic change, by oligarchs who resent regulation, and by cynics who mistake complexity for collapse.

Fox News has become a central hub for this narrative. From op-eds warning against “mob rule” to primetime rants about America losing its way, the message is consistent: democracy is fragile, and control is strength. Tucker Carlson may be gone, but the line lives on—in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and The Times of London. What they promote is not republican virtue. It’s a license for minority rule.

And the resonance isn’t limited to American ears. Russian state media regularly cite these same voices to argue that democracy is a failed experiment. Chinese and Iranian disinformation networks echo the sentiment, flooding social media with AI-generated content and fabricated posts that paint American democracy as chaotic and corrupt. The myth serves them too: the more discredited democracy looks, the stronger their systems appear by comparison.

This isn’t a Cold War redux. It’s something more insidious. Domestic and foreign authoritarians are converging around a shared strategy—undermine trust, destabilize truth, and sell control as stability. When they say “we’re a republic, not a democracy,” what they mean is: let the few decide, and call it order.

This myth isn’t just bad history. It’s a weapon. It was wielded in the 1930s by American fascists who echoed Hitler’s contempt for democratic governance. They called democracy a Jewish plot. They warned of chaos. And they offered a strongman as salvation. These weren’t fringe figures. The German American Bund filled Madison Square Garden. The Silver Shirts recruited in churches. And the Dies Committee—the forerunner to HUAC—documented how deeply their rhetoric had seeped into American life.

The rhetoric then isn’t much different than now. Same myth. New platforms.

So when someone parrots the line, ask what they’re defending—and who they’re trying to silence. The issue isn’t whether we’re a republic or a democracy. We are, by design, both. The real question is whether the republic still belongs to its people—or only to those who fear them

Suggested Readings

Ben-Ghiat, Ruth. Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton, 2020.

Grandin, Greg. The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2019.

MacLean, Nancy. Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. New York: Viking, 2017.

Maddow, Rachel. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism. New York: Crown, 2023.

Madison, James. The Federalist No. 57. In The Federalist Papers, edited by Clinton Rossiter, 351–355. New York: Signet Classics, 2003.

Stanley, Jason. How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. New York: Random House, 2018.

Zakaria, Fareed. The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.