booted conservatives trampling the will of the people. It’s a compelling story, if you ignore one inconvenient fact: the United States isn’t a democracy. Never has been. We’re a republic—a union of 50 distinct states, each with its own democratic processes, bound together by a Constitution designed to protect liberty, not just tally votes. The distinction matters. And it’s the Democrats, not the Republicans, who are quietly dismantling that republic in favor of a raw, winner-take-all democracy. The evidence is all around us, if we’d only look.

A democracy, at its core, is simple: 50.999999% of the votes decide everything. The other 49%? Tough luck—no voice, no representation. It’s mob rule dressed up as fairness, and history shows it collapses every time—Athens, the French Revolution, pick your poison. Our founders knew this, which is why they built a republic with checks and balances: a Senate to give states equal footing, an Electoral College to keep urban centers from steamrolling rural ones, and a Constitution to enshrine rights no majority can touch. Yet today, that system is under siege—not from some cartoonish conservative boogeyman, but from a progressive push to centralize power and let the loudest, most populous voices drown out the rest.

Look at the states. In New York, the city’s millions dictate terms to upstate farmers and Buffalo factory workers. In Washington, Seattle’s tech elite smother the ranchers and loggers of the east. Illinois bends to Chicago’s will, Nevada to Las Vegas’s glitz. The pattern repeats: urban strongholds, often liberal-leaning, wield disproportionate sway, leaving places like Reno, Salem, and countless small towns politically voiceless. This isn’t fairness—it’s domination. And it’s not an accident. It’s the logical endgame of a Democratic Party obsessed with “democracy” at the expense of the republic’s diversity and balance. Power, not principle, drives this train. Damn the Constitution—they want control.

How did we get here? Decades of rot have softened the ground. Education’s decline is a big culprit—schools churn out kids who can’t name the three branches of government but know every TikTok dance. Critical thinking’s out; conformity’s in. Then there’s the welfare trap—handouts that sap initiative, trading self-reliance for dependence on a state that’s happy to oblige as long as it gets votes. Social media amplifies the mess, turning discourse into echo chambers and outrage into currency. Meanwhile, we’ve shipped technical and manufacturing jobs overseas—goodbye, steel mills and factories; hello, call centers and gig apps. The result? A workforce with fewer opportunities, a fading work ethic, and a society that’s lost its moorings. When people feel powerless, they’re ripe for promises of “equity” through majority rule—never mind who gets left behind.

But it’s not too late to reverse this slide. Solutions exist if we’ve got the guts to chase them. Start with education: ditch the fluff and teach kids civics—real civics, not propaganda. Let them wrestle with the Constitution, not just parrot slogans. Next, rethink welfare: shift from endless checks to temporary bridges—job training, apprenticeships, something that rebuilds dignity instead of burying it. On jobs, bring manufacturing back—tax breaks for companies that stay, tariffs on those that don’t. Technical trades should be the new gold standard; not everyone needs a sociology degree, but everyone needs a purpose. And social media? Break up the tech giants—force competition, curb their grip on our minds. None of this is sexy, but it’s practical. It’s about giving people a stake in the republic again, not just a megaphone in a democracy.

The irony is bitter: Democrats cry about “saving democracy” while eroding the republic that keeps us free. Republicans aren’t perfect—lord knows they’ve got their own baggage—but they’re not the ones pushing to scrap the Electoral College or pack the Supreme Court to tilt the scales. The real threat isn’t some red-state coup; it’s the slow suffocation of our system by those who’d rather rule 51% of us than represent 100%. If we want a future where Buffalo and Reno matter as much as Brooklyn and Seattle, we need to stop chasing the mirage of pure democracy and start fighting for the republic we’ve got. Power’s a lousy god to worship. Liberty’s worth the struggle.

You can follow Mike Connors on X @OmniNewsJournal