While some would make the case that those in government should not use social media for fear that it would make them look silly, I think it’s great. The very nature of the internet as a free and open marketplace of ideas is expedient to the discovery of those who don’t know what they’re talking about. Twitter is just one outlet that enables people to open their mouths and indicate a deficit of much-needed enlightenment.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, in a gaping gaffe, declared the U.S. “a democracy, not a banana republic”, as expressed in the following tweet:

“We live in a democracy, not a banana republic. We will not tolerate the use of Americans as props in President Trump’s political games.” -Nancy Pelosi on Twitter

That the U.S. is a democracy is something that they tell elementary school students because there’s not much expectation that they would comprehend the nuance behind how the U.S. is run. It’s easy to see how the mistake is made: democracies involve voting, and Americans vote, so one might assume based on limited information that the U.S. is a democracy. As a sad side-effect in this shortcut in teaching, you have adults who don’t understand the proper classification of the U.S. government.

Because they didn’t learn any better, there are people going around speaking of democracy as though it were virtuous. It actually isn’t. A democracy is mob rule.

The U.S. is not a democracy, it is a constitutional republic. The constitution was especially intended to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority, as expressed by James Madison in The Federalist #10. What’s more, the federal government grants substantial authority to states to govern their own affairs. Very much a republic.

The use of the term “banana republic” is interesting, considering that a banana republic is a small, politically-unstable country whose economy depends primarily upon a single export. That doesn’t sound like the American economy. In fact, the U.S. economy was rockin’ until Dems shut much of it down over a weak virus that mainly only kills people who were already being killed by something else. But I get it, she used the term because bananas sound silly, and because “republic” sounds like Republican, a group that Pelosi seems to take issue with. That the word used to describe the U.S. sounds like something she doesn’t like is a petty reason to mislead anyone as to the true nature of American government, especially for the Speaker of the House, who should understand American government better than most.

But can we really expect better from a leader who makes excuses for violent rioters while getting into Twitter slapfights with the President when he does something to make the situation better?