Who has not been confronted by some Republican apologist for voter suppression and injustice with the phrase, "The United States is a republic, not a democracy." Their point is there is no obligation for our electeds to be elected democratically, that "one man, one vote" 1/

They mock the idea of "one man, one vote" as not actually something our founders valued or accepted. Oddly enough, the Supreme Court said otherwise in Smith v Allwright. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/321/649/case.html 2/

In the decision, the Supreme Court declared the United States is a "constitutional democracy" and invalidated the all-white primary. At that time, segregationists were alarmed and began to push back, 3/

Segregationists advanced the counter-argument the country was a republic, not a democracy, so it didn't matter if black people didn't get to vote. So, remember, the Supreme Court said we are a democracy, segregationists argue we are not. 4/4