American Empire?

Originally posted by Fishy
Bush using the tools he had to get into office only speaks for him, it wouldn't make the President of the United States a inherited title.

The very fact that he still got elected into office much like the people in congress and the people in the house of representatives make it very clear that there is indeed something like free choice in the United States and that the people have the ability to elect who they want to lead them.

That they happened to have chosen Bush and his Father means that they obviously at the time of the elections felt those two were most suited to do the job. All other things are irrelevant and Bush will still be gone in a few years and somebody will have to run for office again to get his job. And the people will have to put their trust into that particular person. You can't just walk up to the Oval office put your ass in the chair and say "I am President" you still have to get the people's approval, meaning not an Empire with an emperor but a democracy with a by the people elected head of state.

By tools, I mean tools that Bush can use to rig the election.

Originally posted by KingTut
By tools, I mean tools that Bush can use to rig the election.

Bush can't be elected three times. Bush will be gone, the American people will elect somebody else.

Meaning democracy

Empire implies that there is an absolute ruler and in that interpretation one can argue taht the seperation of powers negates that, along with elected office.

If we go by Land expanse and political dominance i would say yes, there is even tribute to the US through economic deals, however the US makes almost as many donations which previous empires, if we hold them as precident would not practice. Most colonial empires for example physically controlled the resources and siphoned them to the motherland without profit to the inhabitance.

The British Empire didn't have an absolute ruler.

I wouldn't count America as an Empire simply due to the fact that it hasn't annexed the countries it has troops or strong economic influence in.

Britain had an absolute ruler up to King James. Though they were a constitutional monarchy from henceforth to this day one can see that during the industrial revolution their citizens gradually gained rights but in comparison to the Americas at the tiem they were significantly behind and the king/queen retained an amount of influence and power comparable to a Caesar in Rome; which we can hold as precident as a true empire.

And yes there are many things that one must compare on many different levels to consider soemthing an empire. I basically jsut claimed that if we went solely on economic or influential power over other countries one can perhaps consider those qualities similair to taht of an Empires.

Well, since Empires at their Peek, tend to be the Richest "entities" on Earth, with the most gold mines and or natural resources and most importantly, Influence. That would add to the "argument" as to weather America is an Empire or Not. But....

Also keep in mind that a true Emperor, is supposedly "God on Earth", or "Gods Son On Earth". I seriously doubt that any American thinks of Bush as a God. lol

Well there is this little place called the South...

And you can still have an empire at their peek, but still lag behind other entities.

Originally posted by Tangible God
Well there is this little place called the South...

And you can still have an empire at their peek, but still lag behind other entities.

Good point. Many Empires tended to have enemies who were more advanced then them. Which would also be a good reason for the Empire to attempt to conquer that enemy, to gain new "knowledge", the knowledge they needed to sustain their Power.

Yes, America is an Empire but its crumbling much like the Roman or British Empire due to the fact that we have too much influence in the Middle East and can't actually expand anymore without looking evil, so we'll just pretend were fighting terrorism by occupying lands where the government hates us and slowly move towards their resources until its time to pounce and lower gas prices the American Way....or maybe our government will just take their enemies land and allow companies to charge whatever they want, as long as they get a cut.

we have a republic