Yep... I tell people this all the time. Especially the line about the fact that the word "democracy" is not used anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. If you read the Federalist papers (you - pejoratively speaking, I know you've read them), it (Benjamin Franklin, etc.) all state why a democracy doesn't make sense and why a republic was the better way to go.
There are those totally clueless people who literally didn't know this. But then there are these other people who try to argue that a "republican form of government" is a democracy. They explain that because we elect the president, or that we elect representatives, that it's a democracy. Sure, these people are democratically elected... but it does not make us (intentionally) a democracy.
Years ago when I took a significant interest in this, I learned about the 17th amendment and realized how horrible of an idea it was. It literally took away the state's right to be represented... thus further pushing us towards a democracy and a more powerful central government.
People view the house and senate as two deliberating bodies of government... basically, that there's an upper and lower house (not respective of altitude, but that one has preeminence over the other). They have no idea that the whole purpose of the senate was to give direct voice to the state legislatures on matters affecting the states, and thus... the collective republic that is the state legislature could appoint someone to directly represent them... not the "majority of the citizens in the state" determining who represents the state at the Federal level.
