There is certainly an abiding desire for white supremacy in American politics. It’s a desire that will persist against all calamity. However, at least some part of the argument about being a republic versus being a democracy is based on a conceptualization of how the President of the United is chosen. The argument of democracy is that our President should be elected by a majority vote of the national population. In other words by an exercise of direct democracy. Unfortunately, our constitution was written so that the individual states select “electors” (apportioned by population) to gather on a specific date to vote for a president. There are laws set up that govern how the individual states determine the appointment of electors. This is where much of the argument and conflict happens in the appointment of each new President. The Trump Republicans want to make it possible to override or overlook how a state might select a Presidential candidate by popular vote within a state. They would prefer a situation where a state’s legislature could vote to appoint the electors without regard to the majority preferences of its own citizens. It’s my observation that Republicans don’t mind (too much) allowing democracy to be practiced at the local level of a town or county. But as election consequences apply at the higher levels of the state or federal concerns Republicans want to maintain institutional control by gerrymandering and authoritarian override.