Thank you for this lucid dismantling of this tiresome Republican talking point! One thing these guys forget is that "Republic" is a morally neutral term for any form of government that is not a hereditary monarchy. China, for example, brands itself as a "People's Republic," and USSR stood for "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics". Most dictatorships still call themselves "republics" as well, even if they have a "president for life."

So there is nothing morally uplifting about being a "republic." A democratic republic and federation of semi-sovereign democratic states, conversely (like the US or Canada) has no moral basis for legitimacy other than democracy--one person, one vote, regardless of social class or ethnicity. Anything else is tyranny.