U.S.A. = Empire

I WAS ONCE a member of an online discussion group, and one day I used the term "the american empire", and one, and possibly more other members of the group basically said, "what american empire?" 

That's when I quietly eased out the back door, and left the group. I hope they didn't miss me. I just felt like i had nothing more to contribute. I aure as hell am not gonna try to explain to a bunch of perfectly intelligent americans what the american empire is, and then argue about it.

no way. if you don't see, accept, and know what the american empire is, you're hopeless. I friend of mine once told me he would never date a qoman who doesn't know who the vice president of the united states is, and i can see his point.

Consider the hundreds, maybe thousands, of american military bases all over the world, on other country's soil. Consider the dominant economy, and the bullying, threatening, and bombing on the world stage.

If you require direct and distant territorial sovereignty to reach empire status, consider alaska and hawaii.

Whatever it takes, git 'er done, 'cause to go around pretending the the united states of america is, say, a "republic" rather than an empire is to hide one's head in the sand, so to speak. The folks in my online discussion group happened to be conservatives; you don't suppose it is widely believed among american conservatives that the united states is not an empire, do ya?  nah

Of course, to the extent that they do believe it, they assume that the empire exists only for righteous reasons.  American conservatives are nothing if they are not patriotic.