Ok--we need to flesh this bit of language out right now. And I love you, @horn4life, but you and everyone else who espouses the "we're a republic, not a democracy" line of shit needs to go and slap the elementary-school teacher who taught them that. Because "democracy" and "republic" literally mean the same thing; the only difference is whether you prefer Ancient Greek or Latin to name your form of government.
"Democracy" comes from the ancient Greek: "Demos"=people and "kratos"=rule. So literally "rule by the people."
"Republic" comes from Latin: "Res"=the thing and "publica"=the people. So literally "the affair of the people."
The dichotomy that people think they're ascribing between "democracy" and "republicanism" is actually between "direct democracy" and "representative democracy." In a direct democracy (e.g., ancient Athens), all of the voters get together in the town square and vote on individual pieces of legislation. In a representative democracy (e.g., the UK), the people vote for representatives, who then vote on legislation.
The Roman Republic had aspects of both representative and direct democracy. The Senate was a representative body. And constitutionally, matters of treasury and foreign affairs were handled exclusively by the Senate (until the Gracchi upset that constitutional order, but that's a discussion for another thread). But then there was the Assembly (which were actually three different Assemblies, but that's not important right now), which were convened in the Forum and in which every citizen voted on individual propositions. So even the Roman Republic--from which the term "republic" derives--was not a purely representative democracy.
So please, please, please, for the love of God, Zeus, Jupiter, and for good measure Odin and Horus, please stop drawing a false distinction between a "democracy" and a "republic." We live in both a democracy and a Republic.
For now.