That's a false dichotomy. The U.S. is a democracy and it is also a republic. Technically, calling it a republic is only partially correct just like calling it a democracy is also partially correct. My statement, however, paraphrases a famous quote by Winston Churchill.
I know that. I was pointing out—indirectly—the incompleteness of your paraphrase.
IOW, Churchill wasn’t suggesting that a pure democracy is better than all the others. I think we agree on that.
:-)