I took this from davek123  but I thought it was just too good not to repost. A must read for every citizen whose uninformed about this topic.

I sometimes seem to bore people when I explain that the United States is not a democracy. 

The United States is a republic.

And that it bugs me that we're always being told that we're a democracy, when this simply is not true.

Here's a good blog on it by divine :

http://divine.mindsay.com/dammit_those_are_the_things_that_upset_me.mws