# Are the teabaggers really so dumb as to not know the difference between Nazis and Communists? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 16, 2009, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312 "2009-09-16T12:47:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/81 "2009-09-17T20:56:42Z")
1. When trying to sound smart, don’t quote the Random House Dictionary (or, in your words, _the dictionary_). It’s not a work of scholarship; it’s more like a primer. For beginners. 2. [REPUBLIC Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/republic) > [@](#): > > Main Entry: re·pub·lic > Pronunciation: \ri-ˈpə-blik > Function: noun > Etymology: French république, from Middle French republique, from Latin respublica, from res thing, wealth + publica, feminine of publicus public — more at real, public > Date: 1604 > 1 a (1) : a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president (2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government b (1) : a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law (2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government c : a usually specified republican government of a political unit \ > 2 : a body of persons freely engaged in a specified activity \ > 3 : a constituent political and territorial unit of the former nations of Czechoslovakia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Yugoslavia 1. While republican governments are _often_ directly elected, they are equally often elected in name only or not elected at all. Hence the Soviet _republics_ and so on. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/82 "2009-09-17T21:00:36Z")
> [@LilShieste](#): > > True. I saw the following sign on the news the other day (from some teabagger protest): > **OBAMA > 1933 ALL OVER AGAIN!** > > (with a swastika inside the O in OBAMA) > > Yeah, I think these guys flipped “reason” the bird long ago. Now, if they had said “1932 ALL OVER AGAIN” (referring to FDR’s election), then they would have a . . . aw, shit . . . **if only!** If only Obama could be another FDR instead of another Clinton! ☹ Of course, in the eyes of these assclowns there’s probably not much choose, anyway, between Hitler, Stalin, and FDR. And Clinton, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/83 "2009-09-17T21:10:04Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > Indeed, most people do believe that. Most people including _the fucking Random House dictionary_[link](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/republic) > I know that it also means a state without a monarch, but when you and **psychonaut** imply that it doesn’t mean the definition, it’s just plain stupid. The usage you describe is not a connotation - it’s a denotation. Both of you, open a book before you criticize word usage. You can start with the dictionary. Direct your criticism to the poster to whom I was responding. It was he (or she) who implied that East Germany was lying when it called itself a republic. By your very own citation, this implication is incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/84 "2009-09-17T21:21:12Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > 1. When trying to sound smart, don’t quote the Random House Dictionary (or, in your words, _the dictionary_). It’s not a work of scholarship; it’s more like a primer. For beginners. Um, you do realize the merriam webster link you posted says the same damn thing, right? Do you still think “a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law” is a, in your words, “connotation”? Look, you’re the asshole that was trying to sound smart by saying that the damn meaning of the word was just a connotation that the U.S. people merely “believe.” If you want to be pedantic, at least get it right. You didn’t, so I posted. On preview, **psychonaut** , you have my apologies, I shouldn’t have included you in my post. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/85 "2009-09-18T03:55:35Z")
Even as a fifty-one-year old myself who trends towards the extremely casual in dress, and hates being asked to wear anything other than jeans or a swimsuit, I find my nose figuratively wrinkling and my eyes squinting with disdain at forty- and fifty-somethings who are willing to display themselves publicly in [message T-shirts](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-white-victimhood17-2009sep17,0,2618101.story). I imagine the letters are in dark print on a light background color, the better to display their substantial torsos. It doesn’t bother me nearly as much as their politics, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/86 "2009-09-18T06:06:19Z")
> [@LilShieste](#): > > **OBAMA > 1933 ALL OVER AGAIN!** > > (with a swastika inside the O in OBAMA) I have little doubt that it was specifically referring to the year Hitler was made Chancellor. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/87 "2009-09-18T06:18:56Z")
Its the year Obama was really born. You won’t be hearing from those people again, they disappeared. In the night. ---
**Author:** ![Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/88 "2009-09-18T13:04:39Z")
> [@shy\_guy](#): > > The definition of “republic” that we learned in school was a state controlled by its citizens through representatives chosen by them. Wow, I never knew that. I’ve lived in the United Kingdom all my life and never realised it was a republic. Best not tell the Queen. Or Martin McGuinness. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/89 "2009-09-18T13:35:18Z")
> [@Sandwich](#): > > Wow, I never knew that. I’ve lived in the United Kingdom all my life and never realised it was a republic. Best not tell the Queen. Or Martin McGuinness. For fucks sake, it’s not a Republic it’s a Constitutional monarchy. Here’s a clue, Parliament \*passes \*laws, who signs the assent \*into \*law? That’s not to say a parliamentary democracy can’t be a Republic and it’s not to say the distinction can’t be slight, but the former is not the case in the UK and I don’t think the latter is the case in the UK at the moment. Case in point: Queen has lunch with Mervyn King, half a world away Gordon Brown shits his pants and commits a 180’ turn on a second stimulas package. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Captain\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/90 "2009-09-18T13:47:46Z")
> [@PrettyVacant](#): > > Case in point: Queen has lunch with Mervyn King, half a world away Gordon Brown shits his pants and commits a 180’ turn on a second stimulas package. Are you suggesting that the Queen has any sort of leverage on economic policy? I call bullshit. She wasn’t involved in the debate, public or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/91 "2009-09-18T14:32:01Z")
> [@Captain\_Awesome](#): > > Are you suggesting that the Queen has any sort of leverage on economic policy? I call bullshit. She wasn’t involved in the debate, public or otherwise. Of couse she wasn’t involved in the debate. That’s not how it works. [Check the date on this:](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article5970954.ece) > [@](#): > > In the midst of the economic crisis yesterday, when news about the nation’s finances dominated every news bulletin, the Queen did something she had never done before; she held an audience with the Governor of the Bank of England, at Buckingham Palace, for the first time since she came to the throne 57 years ago. > > For half an hour she and Mervyn King were in a room alone as they discussed the state of the economy. No one else was there: no advisers, no officials, no one to take notes of what was said. [And then the date on this.](http://www.worldfinance.com/news/worldnews/article555.html) Same day, Gordon Brown did a 180’ on a second stimulas package. I may not have described what happened clearly, but it did happen and it happened because matters had got to the point where Brown’s policy was impinging on the national interest, the nation state. It was time to say enough. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Captain\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/92 "2009-09-18T15:03:42Z")
Hmm, I wasn’t aware of the timing issue with regard to Mervyn King’s statement. I suppose it’ll be a few decades before we find out what was said behind those doors, or more likely never. I’ll admit it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that she supported and privately advocated King making a statement, though I find it difficult to believe he would have acted under her direction alone. His position was already against the second bail-out. If push come to shove, and if it was simply the monarchy trying to dictate the moves, rather than the balance of public and economic opinion, parliament would win out. Charles, as king, is definitely going to prove a more vocal problem. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/93 "2009-09-18T15:07:30Z")
Let him get on a plane with Prince Philip and he’ll never be king. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/94 "2009-09-18T16:14:59Z")
> [@Captain\_Awesome](#): > > Hmm, I wasn’t aware of the timing issue with regard to Mervyn King’s statement. I suppose it’ll be a few decades before we find out what was said behind those doors, or more likely never. I’ll admit it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that she supported and privately advocated King making a statement, though I find it difficult to believe he would have acted under her direction alone. His position was already against the second bail-out. Someone made a phone call, didn’t they. You have to presume it was King going outside the chain of command, and that he wouldn’t have called in Brown’s credit card without first getting the support of Her Madge. Unique times, of course. Brown had lost the plot though, well perspective anyway. The funny part was Brown’s response; he was half way around the world in Chile when King went to the palace for tea - trying to drum up support for his soon to be forgotton second stimulas - and before you know it, he’s in a tv studio mumbling about Primogeniture. In the middle of the worst econmic crisis imaginable, and a week before te G20 in London. Lost it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/95 "2009-09-18T17:03:25Z")
> [@PrettyVacant](#): > > For fucks sake, it’s not a Republic it’s a Constitutional monarchy. I’ve also heard it characterized as a “crowned republic.” Arguably it was a constitutional monarchy in the 18th Century, a crowned republic in the 20th, and the shift came sometime in the 19th. ---
**Author:** ![Normal\_Phase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Normal\_Phase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Normal_Phase)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/96 "2009-09-18T17:50:17Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > No. Look, you’re not going to win any points unless you recognize where these people are coming from and address the point they _ **think** _ they’re making. > > The idea is that differences between Nazism and Communism were just so much sloganeering for the same basic mindset: consolidate power in the state by stripping rights from the people, so that an untrammeled ruling party – which doesn’t bother with free elections any more than it tolerates dissent – can regulate industries and distribute wealth as it pleases, with no _ **actual** _ regard to the citizenry regardless of which _ **pretense** _ happens to get claimed. > > So if I’m a budding totalitarian, the idea is that I’ll use whatever pitch is most convenient; I’d appeal to white supremacists if I’m seeking power in '20s-era Germany, sure as I’d talk up Marxist ideals if I were ostensibly pushing a dictatorship of the proletariat – but I’d only ever _ **really** _ be pushing a dictatorship of, y’know, me and mine. > > And so, they reason, in present-day America – well, you’d pitch it as sensible gun-control legislation and health-care reform or whatever, and you’d start cracking down on free expression by talking up diversity or railing against hate speech or whatever, but it’d always be about pushing the same goal: I don’t care _ **how** _ we get there, you’d say; all I ultimately _ **want** _ is my own secret police knocking on doors at midnight when a nation of informants keep turning each other in – and since I need the support of gullible locals to get there in the first place, I’ll use whichever sweet-sounding promises mark the path of least resistance. You know, this is great and all, but when you get right down to it, what you are really describing has all the hallmarks of a classic conspiracy theory: if virtually any move the government makes can be envisioned as the first step toward totalitarianism – even things that are eminently sensible by any rational standard of governmental responsibility – then no move by the government (save doing nothing) can allay those fears; and no reasoned argument will be accepted. If you’re right, then you’re not so much saying that understanding them might lead to effective debate; you’re saying that there is no way to debate them at all. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/97 "2009-09-18T18:10:00Z")
> [@Normal\_Phase](#): > > You know, this is great and all, but when you get right down to it, what you are really describing has all the hallmarks of a classic conspiracy theory: if virtually any move the government makes can be envisioned as the first step toward totalitarianism – even things that are eminently sensible by any rational standard of governmental responsibility – then no move by the government (save doing nothing) can allay those fears; and no reasoned argument will be accepted. > > If you’re right, then you’re not so much saying that understanding them might lead to effective debate; you’re saying that there is no way to debate them at all. You just figured that out!? From [_The Nation:_](http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090928/younge) > [@](#): > > There are three important points to acknowledge about people like Gladney. First, they are not new. The cold war in general and McCarthyism in particular was built on lies, misinformation, obsession and guilt by the most tenuous of associations. After Eisenhower defeated Taft at the 1952 GOP convention, a woman emerged insisting, “This means eight more years of socialism.” In the late 1940s, a chairman of a federal loyalty review board conceded, “Of course, the fact that a person believes in racial equality doesn’t prove that he’s a communist. But it certainly makes you look twice, doesn’t it? You can’t get away from the fact that racial equality is part of the communist line.” Today the Internet distributes these slurs faster, and cable TV gives them more outlets. But there has always been a sizable section of society that seeks to fashion a bespoke reality out of whole cloth. These are the people who believe that civil rights was really about miscegenation, abortion rights is about promiscuity and gay rights is about pedophilia. There are more of them than we’d like to think. And they are not going away. > > **Second, you can’t argue with them. A good two and a half weeks after failed rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina left bodies floating in the streets and people abandoned on roofs, 35 percent of the country believed that George W. Bush had done a good or excellent job responding to the crisis. That is roughly the proportion of the country with whom there is no real means of engagement.** These are the birthers, Swiftboaters, climate change skeptics, Obamaphobes and Palin-tologists–the base. They live in a politically parallel world where everyone they know believes the same as they do. They don’t like established facts, so they come armed with their own. The left has such people too, but they are marginal. With no news channels to promote them or Congressmen prepared to advocate for them, their views rarely reach the mainstream. > > Third, we can beat them. These people gain the kind of purchase that shifts them from an irritant to an obstacle only when there is a vacuum of leadership and the absence of good alternatives. It is only under these conditions that they are able to cast unreasonable doubt in the reasonable minds of those who seek clarification, encouragement or a stake in any substantive change. This is precisely what has happened with the healthcare debate over the past few months. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/98 "2009-09-18T18:13:19Z")
> [@Normal\_Phase](#): > > You know, this is great and all, but when you get right down to it, what you are really describing has all the hallmarks of a classic conspiracy theory: if virtually any move the government makes can be envisioned as the first step toward totalitarianism – even things that are eminently sensible by any rational standard of governmental responsibility – then no move by the government (save doing nothing) can allay those fears; and no reasoned argument will be accepted. > > If you’re right, then you’re not so much saying that understanding them might lead to effective debate; you’re saying that there is no way to debate them at all. I wouldn’t go that far, though. I think they can be reasoned with, if we pitch it as a change in degree without being a change in kind. Forget the jokes about ignorant hicks who scream about keeping the government about of my Medicare; just take that as a starting point, and pitch reform as making Medicare available to every citizen. _Y’all know Medicare, right? We’ve had it for decades? Your uncle is on it?_ Don’t get roped into talking about some new initiative called a public option. Just talk about this fine bit of Americana that’s been working so well for so long, under so many Republican presidents, and et cetera. Do _ **not** _ talk about how they do things over in Europe. Do _ **not** _ talk about bold sweeping change. Just emphasize only that you’re doing more of the same, while emphasizing big heaping gobs of transparency. All IMHO, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/99 "2009-09-19T09:25:54Z")
**Really Not All That Bright** : If your classification scheme classifies Germany with North Korea and the UK with Saudi Arabia, it’s broken. You can argue for the 19th Century definition of ‘republic’ or you can move into a post-WWI universe of discourse. Here’s how the words are used now: If people can vote and those votes matter (modulo relatively short-lived irregularities), the country is a Democracy. Let go of the stupid Middle School Civics definition that equated Democracy with Direct Democracy, for it was wrong even before 1917. Democracy, then, contrasts with Dictatorship, and Republic is a subset of Democracy that contrasts (to the extent it has to) with Direct Democracy. This also means the UK and Canada are both functionally Republics (and, thus, Democracies) in the common use of the term. This actually makes real-world sense: The real power in those countries rests in Parliaments, and those bodies are formed of MPs chosen by free and fair elections. They are, in short, much closer to America and Germany than they are to North Korea or Saudi Arabia. Your definitions made sense when Republics were rare in the world and most (important) Monarchies were European Monarchies and, thus, one big feuding family. That was perfectly true in the 18th Century and I’m sure Locke, Jefferson, and George III would all agree with you, once George consulted with the mighty oaks. It became less true throughout the 19th Century and was taken out and shot in 1917-1918. The final blow was the rise of Dictatorships without monarchs as the primary movers in world politics. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Captain\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/100 "2009-09-19T12:34:34Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > **Really Not All That Bright** : If your classification scheme classifies Germany with North Korea and the UK with Saudi Arabia, it’s broken. You can argue for the 19th Century definition of ‘republic’ or you can move into a post-WWI universe of discourse. Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy. It does not fit the descriptor of concurrent parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy, which describes the UK. I have never heard the UK _ever_ described as a republic by anyone, ever. My Oxford Dictionary agrees with me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312.md?page=6)