I am not supporting that Democracy and Republic forms of governence be combined. Not hardly. You are screaming at the top of your lungs that the country is broke.. and you are right. But what you wish to relegate to is a form of government that is not quite in tune with its original form. When you see the words "all men are created equal" you take them to the literal meaning of 1776, all MEN (white ones) and no one else are created equal. There is a very fundamental problem with that line of thought, there is no room for choice in your arena.
The founding documents are a framework. Not to be reinterpreted not be functionally changed, I submit to you that it is not just those durn liberals that try to shape this country by INTERPRETING the Constitution, the far right makes the very same effort, but only it uses God as its anchor.
There is a reason that God is supposed to kept out of government and its more serious of an issue than nativity scenes in front of the courthouse, or using God's name in the pledge. God is meant to be kept out of government so that people like you, who don't have a fundamental understanding of what personal freedom actually means, cannot use religous zealotry to push legislation.
A return to 1776 by way of pressing the reset button is certainly not the path to choose. Learning from the errors that have led us into this mess and backtracking to correct them, all while keeping the positive things we have attained over the last 223 years is the charge to this generation.
You stand on the corner and say: "It's all f-ed up, so now lets do it MY way!"
I stand on the opposite corner and say: "It's all f-ed up, so now lets do it the right way!"
We most definately still live in a Representative Republic. If we did not there would just be referendum after referendum from the people that government would be obligated to follow up.
If we lived in a Democracy, there could be a vote tommorow to give every person in the country that does not have it $1M. I am willing to bet that the measure would pass overwhelmingly. Which is why its great we live in a Representative Republic, so that the sheer desires of 50% + 1 don't derail the framework of the nation.
I am not going to argue with you that there is a fundamental problem in this country. There is, but I am not about to take the wreckingball to what we have achieved, just to undo some errors in judgement made along the way.