A republic of small state democracies:P But yeah, the US has technically never been a democracy. Also: reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-electoralcollege-idUSKBN1480FQ
I mean it's effectively an oligarchy at this point, but in theory it's a republic. The states themselves are republics too because they're supposed to abide by the Bill of Rights.
That is true, democracy would be the wrong word to use, more like each state has an local election which can have a effect on who gets to have a vote on the federal level.
