We live in a republic, which basically means a country not ruled by a monarch. One-hundred-fifty-nine nations call themselves republics, including China, North Korea, and Belarus. However, ours is a democratic republic, and a constitutional republic.
"Don t know much about history ." begins the song. Yesterday is over, so what does it matter? Some see history as stories to instill children with patriotism. Some think you can learn it from driving past statues of past heroes. Some limit themselves to America ignoring the world s 5,000 years of written memory.
Why are there so many guns? We are the most heavily armed populace on Earth, with more guns than people. In particular, why do the citizens of a representative democracy, that hasn t seen a foreign invasion since 1812, need 20 million AR-style, semiautomatic militaristic weapons?
The slogan "Make America great again" doesn't specify exactly when America was great, but it's generally understood to be the 1950s. Today, some Americans are passing laws to make the country more like what they imagine those times were like.