"Beware the demagogues ready to declare a trade war against our friends"

[freeloader]

What is the argument here? Since America is a representative democracy and not a pure democracy then we should just do fascism?

I find the argument that “the United States isn’t a democracy” to be made overwhelmingly by two types of people: 1) those who think saying it makes themselves appear smarter, as if their knowledge that the Constitution (and Declaration of Independence for that matter) lack of the words democracy, democratic, etc. shows them in some way superior to those who don’t possess this knowledge. This seems especially popular with those who have only recently read the Constitution and have decided they are experts on it. Think middle schoolers and high schoolers. And 2) Those who don’t like democracy and think the United States has too much democracy. They often think that the franchise should be restricted, perhaps only to men, to white people, to property owing white people, to white people who have served in the military, or something similar.  

The tech billionaires allied with and backing Trump (including Musk and Thiel) often make this distinction, for instance. They cite it as one of the reasons why the vast majority of people should no longer be allowed to vote and the franchise should be limited to a relative handful of enlightened people who share their vision for the new America. 

Genuinely curious LevelUp, are you someone who uses the “republic” argument and who also thinks we have too much democracy and that the franchise should be restricted?  If so, who do you think should be allowed to vote?