Where “A Republic, not a Democracy” Came From

From the pro-segregation book You and Segregation (1955). A reminder of what people are really saying when they say “It’s a Republic, not a Democracy”

This was not written by a fringe candidate, but by Georgia’s former segregationist governor and future senator, Herman E. Talmadge. Not an obscure book or author.

It was of course popularized by the John Birch Society Blue Book, where it was a central tenet that democracy was a scam by which majoritarian rule would lead to the collapse of Western Civilization.

But underneath it all is the idea that majority rule would lead to social welfare policies and racial integration. And more specifically, there is a panic that over time demographic shifts will be against them and those groups might wield power in ways that they have in the past.

And so the idea is that minority rule should be acceptable, but not just any minority rule — a minority rule by the former majority, which must stay in power to keep out the barbarians at the gate.

One of the reasons why you’ve seen what was once whittled down to a fringe position have such a resurgence is that we are getting very close to being a minority majority nation. For some people, this is a bit of a conundrum. So much of the mythology of America is tied up in the idea that “the people decide.” But if the people truly decide, the former majority will lose power.

The way the circle gets squared is the same way segregationists squared it as they began to fear the power of a Black electorate — to create an odd distinction and split the form of government we have (a democratic republic) into two pieces, and define efforts to suppress votes as republican in nature, and therefore consistent with national ideals. But the distinction is largely one created in the 1950s, not the 1780s, and its provenance should give us all pause.