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It is not in the nature of republics throughout history to become empires.

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Gary Heart has some interesting things to say about America’s transition to Empire. Of course, it all depends on whether you see what is happening now as something new, but Heart’s remarks are interesting simply because of his desire to enter into the national debate from such a critical perspective:

It is not in the nature of republics throughout history to become empires. When Rome made the transition in the first century B.C. it became a vastly different entity. Its character changed. Its values changed from participation to power, from popular sovereignty to the sovereignty of the emperor, from resistant to corruption to corrupt. In a few short months we have gone from a benign internationalist, cooperative, alliance-based nation to a preemptive, unilateralist, aggressive hyper-power.

Before America pursues the path of empire, we better be thinking more about what we are doing and where it might lead.
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