"I trust that the proposed Constitution afford a genuine specimen of representative government and republican government; and that it will answer, in an eminent degree, all the beneficial purposes of society."

--Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, 1788

You'll note, I trust, that "republican" is in lower case. Not meaning the political party, but of the Republic which is the United States rather than a democracy, which it isn't and never has been.