Dr. Michael Bailey closes out the American Angst year with a holiday-season conversation that’s equal parts warm, witty, and razor-sharp about American civic identity. Starting with a few Christmas-movie confessions (including some truly astonishing gaps in Dr. Bailey’s viewing history), the episode quickly pivots into the real theme: why the phrase “We’re a republic, not a democracy” is not just misleading, but often politically weaponized.

Bailey breaks down the difference between republic, democracy, and liberal democracy in plain language—showing how political scientists actually use these terms and why the “republic vs. democracy” framing is frequently a rhetorical sleight of hand. Drawing from his work published at Outside the Beltway (and from a recent talk he gave to the League of Women Voters), he traces how the slogan has been used historically—from the John Birch Society to modern partisan messaging—to justify restrictions on participation, normalize minority-rule structures, and minimize the moral weight of broad voter inclusion.

Along the way, Dr. Bailey makes his core argument: the United States has long been a republic, but over time it became a democracy in the modern sense—especially a liberal democracy, where “liberal” means liberty, not partisan ideology. And that distinction matters, because a republic can exist without robust rights or meaningful participation (he points to global examples), while a liberal democracy is defined by protecting civil liberties, welcoming dissent, and making representative government accountable to “we the people.”

To lighten the mood after an hour of political theory (and to keep the angst appropriately seasonal), the episode ends with a playful holiday “list segment,” where Dr. Bailey shares a few memorable Christmas gifts—including a beloved childhood globe that accidentally taught him a lifelong lesson about language, history, and the power of words.

The views expressed on American Angst are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.