Q&A
ENQUIRER: Does the term ‘DEMOCRACY‘ from the point of view of The American Minervan hold as much weight as the term ‘REPUBLICANISM‘?
DOMINIQUE: The term ‘republicanism’ in my writings holds significantly more weight than ‘democracy,’ but these terms within context of U.S. system of government do not mete out each other. The two terms in the system depend upon each other, but this requires explanation due to the specifics of what The American Minervan is doing.
I am focused on reviving classical civic republicanism in the U.S. as the living continuation of a tradition stretching from Cicero and Roman republican thought, through Renaissance humanism, to the American and Haitian revolutions. It is Civic Republicanism that provides the core structure of the U.S. republic. This system is mixed and blends elements learned from the histories and legacies of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy to prevent domination and corruption. My core project and mission is to re-construct republicanism as a political and spiritual regenerative and prime force for liberty, civic virtue, rule of law, mixed constitution, and resistance to arbitrary power.
“We wish the Republic to be kept Safe” in the tagline frames republicanism as the soul of American civic life. This Latin motto was the core of ancient republicanism, even reflected in the broader Roman sentiments, e.g., Marcus Tullius Cicero’s repeated calls to preserve the republic in his Catilinarian Orations (Orationes in Catilinam). Cicero as consul delivered his four speeches in 63 BC to expose and suppress the conspiracy led by the demagogue Catilina to overthrow the late Roman Republic.
“The People” in CIVIC REPUBLICANISM originally meant: (i.) every inhabitant who refuses domination and accepts civic duties, (ii.) that welfare is secured by active citizens who keep power dispersed and corruption impossible, and (iii.) supreme law means the actual safety and non-domination of every single citizen. The Latin phrases and motto REM PUBLICAM SALVAM ESSE VOLYMVS and SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX ESTO explain the Republic.
I am fleshing out the entire history to demonstrate to you a tradition, that is irreplaceable; and has not been utilized even half in its potential, because the citizens are ignorant of it — and some wish to be, because they have relegated these interests to the Right and conservatives who abuse and distort it. The tradition is not for one particular ‘side’ or ‘party’ to wield.
This para. belongs to another piece I am working on, but I will introduce it in this answer in more opinionated form. The roots of AMERICAN REPUBLICAN HERITAGE are connected to the revival of classical culture in the two distinct movements of the Italian Renaissance emerging in the thirteenth-century and Northern Renaissance in the fifteenth-century extended into the Enlightenment and coming down to us from even further antiquity. We have ample Wisdom to work from as a civilization, but we do not utilize it. The People have to utilize it and retain it in their minds, not merely the elites, or those who govern us! We are not merely products of the Enlightenment, which has been made a scapegoat and the partial origin story of the angst with modernity. There is much history that cannot be condensed into simply “old White men” history. This history and its legacy belong to all who inhabit this civilization. The origins of this tradition of preservation and integralism of classical wisdom go much further than the Carolingian Renaissance’s revival of scriptural studies and liturgical reforms under the Anglo-Saxon philosopher, Alcuin of York, but Francis Petrarch and Alcuin, and the specifics of the two eras are integral to the roots of AMERICAN REPUBLICANISM.
Key distinctions in this worldview you want to take note of is that the U.S. was founded as a republic, deliberately constructed in distinction from a “pure democracy” and the historical failures of popular governments in ancient Greece and Italy. Republics are not forms of Democracy. Democracy by itself was seen as insufficient; and a republican and representative system with checks, balances, civic virtue, and a mixed constitution was required to protect liberty and prevent degeneration into mob rule, tyranny, or instability.
I teach that REPUBLICANISM is the base ideal and deeper framework that shields democracy, in our system. In our mixed constitution and system, the two depend upon one another. A democracy requires INTELLIGENCE, not pseudo-intelligence mimicking, or hiding behind intelligent language, as in the case, e.g., of the racialist argument.
“Lewis Mumford sees democracy as a way of life. To have this kind of a democracy, pre-supposes intelligence.” (Alfred Korzybski, General Semantics Series: 1st Lecture, 1939, pg. 2)
Republicanism is not merely a form of government, in which everyone does as they please, only to find in time, themselves overrun and ruled by blood-thirsty war-hounds, robber-barons, demagogues†, and aspiring spacefaring colonizers.
American republicanism is sustained by and demands moral discipline, maturity, moderation, competency, civic literacy (education), wisdom based in this literacy to guard against abuses of power, participatory civics, transcendence of racism and racialist biases and the extreme polarized left-right spectrum or party politics. Until you elect representatives as such, you remain vulnerable. Democratic practices and liberal democracy are valued and worth protecting, but they are secondary or derivative. Shouting “We want democracy now” will not end corruption. Democracy is already compromised. It is, without the republican principles and virtues to shelter it, the entry point for the humbug, hypocrite and charlatan.
The return of REPUBLICANISM as in the Mazzinian spirit, to give one example, alongside those that can represent it and build a body of influence from it to promulgate a coherent and unified vision is the best strategy to continue the legacy, save, enhance and fortify democratic practices, civic literacy and human ingenuity; and this is of necessity, not a mere personal view or “niche” academic speculation.
A true republican is to be a torchbearer and protector of secular constitution, democracy and the people, not the other way around. The republican mind upholds salus populi suprema lex esto (“the welfare of the people should be the supreme law”) while rejecting monarchy, theocracy, oligarchy, despotism, and authoritarianism. Republicanism provides the philosophical armor (virtue, non-domination, mixed government) that makes stable and just popular government possible.
“Democracy” (especially when used loosely or as pure majoritarianism) is important but incomplete and potentially unstable on its own. Republicanism is the richer, more historically grounded, philosophically robust, and morally demanding tradition that gives democracy its proper form and safeguards it. Reviving republican principles and the “republican mind” is therefore the higher priority for preserving the American Republic. This perspective aligns with classical and Founding-era distinctions rather than modern colloquial usage, where “democracy” is often used as a catch-all positive term. I am consciously seeking to revive and regenerate, and if I cannot, preserve a tradition that was at its strongest during the Revolutionary era and the first roughly 25 years of the Republic (c. 1770s – early 1810s). This is revolutionary and civic republicanism. So, REPUBLICANISM is clearly the deeper commitment.
† Religious thinking becomes politicized when one side believes the other is demonic or should be eliminated. This leads rationale to no other place than autocratic rule by a singular governing party, or rule by the current class or ecosystem of oligarch-intellectuals with their influence on public discourse and proposed governance experiments. Political and social commentator Nick Fuentes is disappointed, that Trump and the Right didn’t focus on “eliminating the Left,” describing the corruption of the Trump administration as a “black pill moment.” No citizen should be elected to office or remain in office that believe, that only if their party or sect governed alone would the country be saved. This is not the idea of the function of the system. Every citizen is accountable to this.
The American Minervan 
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