Hiding An Empire; America's Unawareness Of Itself

THE UNITED STATES is neither a democracy, nor a republic, but rather, a plutocratic empire, owned and operated by and for the wealthy corporate elite. Just so you know. It was intended by its founders to be a plutocratic republic, a system in which the people in general were largely excluded from power, and would be governed by their superiors, the wealthy elite. That plan ganged agley as early as 1763, before it was ever implemented, when people like Daniel Boone began defying the Ordinance of 1763 and headed west, beyond the Appalachians and British control. I recall several years ago when the conservative members of an online class of '73 discussion group, in the midst of a discussion on America's role in the modern world, insisted that the United States is not an empire, never has been, nor ever shall be. Lacking the fortitude to engage in an explanation of westward expansion, overseas expansion, Hawaii, Alaska, Samoa, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and any possible argument over whether eight hundred and some odd American military bases scattered all over the world constitutes an "empire", I left the group, and struck out on my own, a sort of online version of Daniel Boone. There are two traditional explanations for America's unplanned but now seemingly inevitable expansion across North America to the pacific, and beyond. The more traditional is Frederick Jackson Turner's "frontier thesis", according to which geographical expansion is inherent in the American opportunistic character. The other, an amended version, holds that westward expansion has been the safety value by which open warfare between America's two classes, the rich, and the poor, has been postponed, to date. The Spanish American War is the accepted date of the commencement of the true U.S. empire, when overseas possessions were stolen after a trumped up war versus Spain. For a few short years maps depicted the United States as the continent from Atlantic to the Pacific, and included little boxes on the lower right hand side of the page, in which were located its newly stolen oversees possessions, including the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the rest. Then, the maps stopped including the imperial possessions in boxes, and went back to depicting only the mainland, plus Alaska and Hawaii, and have largely remained so, ever since. For a few short years, during the McKinley and Roosevelt administration, Americans were proud to be an empire, and then, the thrill faded, faded into eventual denial. Why? Why did we become ashamed of our empire? Was it the dubious manner in which it was obtained? Partly. Was it the fact that we haven't treated it very well? Consider Puerto Rico, today, in real time. The island was hit by a devastating hurricane, and human infrastructure was mostly wiped off the map. Aid to Puerto Rico has been like pulling teeth; difficult to send, difficult to apply. The president has often talked about the island as if it were not part of the United States, as if he is totally unaware that its people are American citizens, as if they are foreigners. When he visited there several months ago, he stayed for a few minutes, saw very little, and underestimated the death toll by a factor of a few thousand. He, and we have resisted sending the massive assistance required to the extent that Puerto Ricans spent months without electricity and shelter. "How To Hide An empire" by Daniel Immerwahr, is perhaps the best history yet written of the evolution from American republic to American empire, and the curious manner in which the American people celebrated the glory of their newly acquired and declared imperial majesty for a few short years very early in the last century, then basically forgot all about it. Racism plays a part. Most of America's overseas subjects were non white non Christian, and after killing millions of Philippinos trying to force cultural conformity to American values, the islands were set free in 1946. Most Americans do not realize that people in Puerto Rico are in fact citizens of the United States. We are ashamed of our empire, and thus we hide it from ourselves. We do this to the point that if you mention the term "American empire" to a group of conservatives, they are likely to look at you as if you are crazy, when in fact, they are.