The Choice This Year Is Between Empire and Democracy

Thom Hartman's Latest Compares Dreams Of Empire

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.

Vision is a two-edged sword. The upside of people holding a vision is that they will work to fulfill a vision in a way that mere money can never animate. This is true from companies to nonprofits to churches to nations. A powerful and positive vision is the key ingredient for the success--particularly long term--of any venture.

The downside is when the vision is toxic and dysfunctional (think Jim Jones or Hitler) it can cause generations--centuries--of suffering, war, and desolation.

Empire and democracy are mutually exclusive--ultimately a nation must choose one or the other.

Interestingly, in all of history, no two fully democratic nations have ever gone to war with each other. Emmanuel Kant was right when he wrote, back in 1795, that the idea of a world of democratic nations, which was only a flickering experiment in faraway North America and just catching fire in France, might eliminate for all time the scourge of war.

Will we pursue, as most recently did Hitler, the historic--and failed--vision of empire, sustained by wiping out the wealth of our commons and our middle class while spilling the blood of our children? Or will we pursue democracy--helping create a humane, multilateral, cooperative world while working for greater social justice at home?

Those of us who share this latter vision of democracy must--in the best grassroots traditions of the historic vision-driven populist, progressive, civil rights, and anti-war movements--help bring it about by awakening our neighbors, friends, and co-workers; and by infiltrating the Democratic Party to challenge the corporatist vision of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), which is even today struggling to seize the soul of the Democratic Party in service of corporate rule and empire.

Shall we move back towards the failed darkness of bloody empire, or forward into the light of worldwide democracy?

The choice, this year more than most in the history of America, is ours.