"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed."
- Abraham Lincoln

The federal government and mainstream news media would love for the mass populous to believe that the United States of America is a "Democracy", though a quick look at our Nation's Constitution along with a review of the original intentions of our Nations Framer's clearly proves that anything could not be more further from the truth. The United States of America is a Republic; the power of our Country is vested in the people of our Country as a unified whole, not to bureaucratic governmental officials through absolutism of de facto rules, regulations, and codes for the appeasement and benefit of corporatists and lobbyists. A Republic requires a "three-fourths" count, not a majority rule, nor a minority's favor. Simply put a Republican government is a Nation that is of the people, for the people, by the people.

To better understand exactly what a 'Republic' is let's take a look at the various definitions:

Merriam-Webster defines: republic
1 a (1): a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president (2): a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government b (1): a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law (2): a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government c: a usually specified republican government of a political unit <the French Fourth Republic>
...

REPUBLIC. A commonwealth : that form of government in which the administration of affairs is open to all the citizens. In another sense, it signifies the state, independently of its form of government.
BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY - 3rd EDITION

REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT. A government in the republican form; a government of the people; a government by representatives chosen by the people.
BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY - 3rd EDITION

Now to put Republicanism into even more perspective, let us gain a bit of a grasp on what commonwealth, sovereignty, and autonomy are to mean:

Merriam-Webster defines: commonwealth
...
2: a nation, state, or other political unit: as a: one founded on law and united by compact or tacit agreement of the people for the common good b: one in which supreme authority is vested in the people c: REPUBLIC
...
4: a state of the United States -used officially of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia
5 capitalized : a federal union of constituent states -used officially of Australia
6 often capitalized : an association of self-governing autonomous states more or less loosely associated in a common allegiance (as to the British crown)
7 often capitalized : a political unit having local autonomy but voluntarily united with the United States -used officially of Puerto Rico and of the Northern Mariana Islands

Merriam-Webster defines: sovereign
1 a: one possessing or held to possess sovereignty b: one that exercises supreme authority within a limited Sphere c: an acknowledged leader : ARBITER
...

SOVEREIGN. A person, body, or state in which independent and supreme authority is vested; a chief ruler with supreme power; a king or other ruler with limited power.
BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY - 3rd EDITION

Merriam-Webster defines: sovereignty
...
2 a: supreme power especially over a body politic b: freedom from external control : AUTONOMY c: controlling influence
3: one that is sovereign; especially : an autonomous state

SOVEREIGNTY. The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which any independent state is governed; supreme political authority; paramount control of the constitution and frame of government and its administration; the self-sufficient source of political power, from which all specific political powers are derived; the international independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign dictation; also a political society, or state, which is sovereign and independent.

The power to do everything in a state without accountability, -to make laws, to execute and to apply them, to impose and collect taxes and levy contributions, to make war or peace, to form treaties of alliance or of commerce with foreign nations, and the like.

"Political sovereignty is the assertion of the self-determinate will of the organic people, and in this there is the manifestation of its freedom. It is in and through the determination of its sovereignty that the order of the nation is constituted and maintained."

"If a determinate human superior, not in a habit of obedience to a like superior, receive habitual obedience from the bulk of a given society, that determinate superior is sovereign in that society, and the society (including the superior) is a society political and independent."
BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY - 3rd EDITION

Merriam-Webster defines: autonomous
1: of, relating to, or marked by autonomy
2 a: having the right or power of self-government b: undertaken or carried on without outside control : SELFCONTAINED <an autonomous school system>
3 a: existing or capable of existing independently <an autonomous zooid> b: responding, reacting, or developing independently of the whole ...

Merriam-Webster defines: autonomy
1: the quality or state of being self-governing ; especially : the right of self-government
2: self-directing freedom and especially moral independence
3: a self-governing state

AUTONOMY. The political independence of a nation; the right (and condition) of self-government; the negation of a state of political influence from without or from foreign powers.
BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY - 3rd EDITION

Foreign State A foreign country or nation. The several United States are considered "foreign" to each other except as regards their relations as common members of the Union.
BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY - 3rd EDITION

Now that we have established exactly what a Republican government is and what is means to be sovereign, shall we take a look at how these principles have been woven into the moral foundation our Nation's...

The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.
U.S. Constitution Article IV, Section 4

...
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
U.S. Constitution Article VI, Section 1, Clause 2

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
U.S. Constitution Article VI, Section 1, Clause 3

To show how this is effectively applicable to the several states of the Union, here we observe similar language within California's own Constitution:

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 3 STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SEC. 1. The State of California is an inseparable part of the United States of America, and the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land.

Is America a Democracy - In Short No We Are Not!

"A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person."

"Democracy is the most vile form of government... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention. Have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."
- James Madison

"Simple democracy is... one of the greatest of evils."
- Dr. Benjamin Rush, [signer of the Declaration of Independence]

At the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 18, 1787, a Mrs. Powel anxiously awaited the results, and as Benjamin Franklin emerged from the long task now finished, asked him directly: "Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" "A republic if you can keep it", responded Franklin.

Our Nation's military training manuals used to contain the correct definitions of Democracy and Republic. The following comes from 'Training Manual No. 2000-25' published by the War Department, November 30, 1928.

• A government of the masses.
• Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of "direct" expression.
• Results in mobocracy.
• Attitude toward property is communistic--negating property rights.
• Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether is be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences.
• Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.

• Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them.
• Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences.
• A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass.
• Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy.
• Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and progress.
• Is the "standard form" of government throughout the world.

We are a Republic; we shout above to you, now go forth and be very proud of this fact! To appropriately closeout this webpage, we shall proudly display the State flag for California: