The Republic of the US

Open Email to House Speaker Boehner:

Dear Speaker Boehner,
The Washington Times reports that the Constitution was read at the opening session of the 113th Congress. Very laudable!.
The Times report goes on to quote you, among which is the statement, "This opportunity to debate and express opinions is one of the greatest strengths to our democracy."
I don't mean to be picayune, and I will assume that you are already familiar with my following comments, which I make primarily for consumption by my readers. You have made a fundamental, important error. The United States is not a democracy. It is a republic!
The distinction is important, because a republic takes into consideration the value of individual votes. A democracy does not. When the founding fathers set up the Constitution, it was based upon an intent that the government should be representative of the people, but also recognizing that some people, in casting their votes, do so without any particular knowledge of the issues or the credentials of the person to be elected. Rush Limbaugh has called these people low information voters.
For example contrary to popular belief, the president is chosen not by popular vote, but by an electoral college. The electoral college is composed of 538 electors, corresponding to the 435 members of the House of Representatives, 100 senators, and the three additional electors from the District of Columbia.
The United States Electoral College is the institution that officially elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. The electors are chosen by popular vote on a state-by-state basis. Electors are generally pledged to support the appointment of the candidate recommended by the political party of the elector. The point is that the system attempts to reduce the influence of low information voters. Unfortunately, federal practice has tended to ignore this opportunity and low information voters have more power than they would have if the founding fathers' system was more closely adhered to.
States are required, like the federal government, to be republican in form, and must be so in order to be part of the union..
I believe there are two actions we must take. First, we should eliminate the tendency to call the government of the United States a democracy. It is a republic, as defined by the Constitution. Second, we should further decrease the power of low information voters by using techniques allowable by the Constitution to reduce the power of those votes.