The Choice This Year Is Between Empire and Democracy

"Having lived in Germany and extensively interviewed many (now elderly) former members of Hitler's Nazi Party (and one spy for him) for a book I was writing on the religion of the Nazis, I can say categorically that Hitler had (or at least his people believed he had) a Vision. It was a vision of a world at peace (for 1000 years, no less), a world purified of disruptive or "undesirable" people, a world united in what Hitler called "A New Christianity," a world where things worked smoothly and people were happy because of "strong, steady leadership" (even during times of change), a world guided by a leader who held tenaciously to a singular vision.
Hitler's idea was nothing new, really - it was the vision of Empire. Alexander the Great had a similar vision, as did several of the Caesars of Rome, the last Inca Emperor Wayna Capac, several Chinese dynasties, Papal dynasties, and various larger and smaller empires from those of the last few centuries in Europe, to those started in Mesopotamia 6000 years ago, morphed into a reactive Islamic empire during the Crusades (eventually the Ottoman Empire), and whose revival now fills the dreams of Al Qaeda.
It also appears, for the first time since George Washington outspokenly warned us of engaging in foreign entanglements abroad, that the neocon vision of Empire has largely taken over an American administration. . . .
Empire, Jefferson believed, always ended in disaster, as the nations oppressed by empire invariably rebel. As Wirt summarized Jefferson's sentiments: "Violated liberty lifts her avenging lance, and a down-trodden nation rises before them, in all the majesty of its wrath." "