Election denialism has become not only a thing but a movement. And if critics call this an attack on democracy, some election deniers respond by saying the U.S. is not a democracy, it is a republic.

Founding Father James Madison may have best described the difference between a democracy and a republic: “(The difference) is that in a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person ...

Many public debates about democracy-versus-republic, according to Heersink, are thinly masked attempts to alter or preserve a status quo that benefits a party or candidate for at least the short-term.

Election denialism has become not only a thing but a movement. And if critics call this an attack on democracy, some election deniers respond by saying the U.S. is not a democracy, it is a republic.