(The Lion) — Despite more than $1.4 trillion of education loans in the United States, too many Americans display ignorance of their history.

On my way through Ann Arbor, Michigan, in mid-July, a gathering of fewer than 100 people lined the streets holding signs reading “No Kings” and “Honk for Democracy!”

The reporter in me wanted to stop my car and ask some questions. Unfortunately, I had a plane to catch.

Context inferred these protesters were reacting to President Donald Trump’s Department of Education budget cuts a few days prior. Their logic goes: Trump is a tyrant because he downsized the department even after a court blockage, which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned.

But cutting federal jobs for the sake of reducing billions of national debt hardly qualifies as tyrannical behavior. Trump vowed to return educational choice and funding to the states, per his executive order. Relinquishing power seems counterintuitive to the king-mentality many people are protesting across the nation.

Not only do the “No Kings” signs fail to hold bearing, but so also do the “Honk for Democracy!” signs.

A brief study of the American founding shows America is far from a strict democracy. In fact, the founders feared democracy and actively established systems to prevent such a government.

In Federalist Paper 10, James Madison addressed the threat of factions to divide a nation. Democracies are fertile soil for such factions, he argued.

“Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths,” Madison wrote.

In a democracy, the people directly rule by vote and congregation. In a republic, representatives of the people ratify and enforce law.

Madison, Alexander Hamiliton and John Jay published the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym “Publius.” This involved a not-so-subtle reference to the Roman Republic, where the name was common and the famous Publius Valerius Poplicola was remembered as a Roman consul and founder of the Republic around 509 B.C.

The American founders revered the Roman Republic. These men, experts in ancient political philosophy, modeled their new rising nation after what Aristotle deemed the “best government” – the mixed regime: a blend of the rule of the one, few and many.

For Aristotle, the mixed regime balanced power. This balance served as a check upon man’s selfish nature and greed for authority.

Anyone skeptical of Aristotle should consider the ancient model of Israel’s government.

After exiting Egypt, Israel operated under a “mixed regime,” with Moses serving as the rule of “the one” and the chiefs serving as “the few” representing “the many” people. The Israelites divided into 12 tribes that formed one nation. Sounds familiar?

Eventually Israel became a monarchy. This, however, came only after the rule of the judges, and the people’s continual complaint and demand for a king to “be like the other nations.”  So God gave the people “up to the lusts of their hearts,” according to the Bible, and told his servant Samuel to heed their request.

“Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them,” the Lord commanded. “…only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

The Lord knows the selfish corruption of every man’s heart, and he knew many kings would afflict and burden his people. Even David, whom the Bible describes as a man after God’s own heart, and his son Solomon, described as the wisest man in the world, sinned and failed, resulting in punishment and suffering for the whole nation.

Christians believe that because of man’s sin nature, only God rules as a just, good King. Christians swear allegiance to him and anticipate the day he will make himself known over all the earth. Before then, however, a republican-style government best balances power and ambition among sinful people.

The founders understood this and sought to avoid a government with the rule of the one, who would eventually become a tyrannical prince, preferring to be feared rather than loved, as the 16th-century Italian diplomat Machiavelli wrote to the wealthy de’ Medici family. (For limited context, the “no kings” protests would have been much more fitting during 16th century “republican” Florence in response to Medici rule).

So no, America is not a democracy, nor is she under tyrannical, monarchical rule. Such slogans amount to protesting a situation that does not exist.

Because of the prudence and knowledge of the American founders, the U.S. still exists as a republic, functioning through representation of the people in a mixed government.

Thankfully, the founders also established freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution’s First Amendment. But perhaps citizens should learn their political history before taking to the streets.