True, but it's hard to deny that our republic is hollow and we do in fact live under an oligarchy. Money dictates who gets into office because of the devil's bargain with "the press"; as a result, Congressmen spend 3/4 of their terms in office raising $ for re-election; in-person balloting by paper is being gradually replaced with remote (mail) and e-balloting, opening many opportunities for cheating at the behest of incumbents of either party; the power of the Presidency is gigantic and rarely checked by Congress; the "2-party system" has degraded into 2 factions that never reconcile on anything but war spending.

We got one fucked-up republic.