Thousands of scholars have taken on the central geopolitical question: Is the United States of America an empire? It’s a fierce debate that has unfolded over decades, places the moral status of our society at stake, and has four prevalent positions:
1. Libertarian Institute Director Scott Horton says yes, it is an empire and that’s evil.
2. Neoconservative policy advisor William Kristol says no way, and the U.S. government is righteous and benevolent.
3. Regime historian Niall Ferguson agrees with Scott that we’re dealing with an empire but agrees with Kristol that it’s all for the good. The world needs more of it.
4. Director of Asia Engagement at Defense Priorities Lyle Goldstein disagrees with Scott that our government is an empire but also disagrees with Kristol that our government is righteous and benevolent. He might not call it evil, but certainly problematic.
On March 3, the Institute’s William Norman Grigg Fellow Thomas Eddlem dealt a stunning blow to the insidious myth that America is not an empire. In an Institute article entitled “Plutocratic America’s War on the Working Class,” Eddlem illuminated America’s imperial center with a harsh and uncompromising light:
“Establishment Democrats have long whined that working people pay a higher rate of combined income and payroll taxes than billionaires. They’re not wrong. Income from labor is taxed three times (payroll taxes, income taxes, and inflation) while income from capital is taxed only once (capital gains). In America today, capital gains tax is capped at 20%, but labor’s floor is 15.3% with a payroll tax, plus the 3-8% inflation tax, both of which start at dollar one. Add the income tax, which tops out at 39%, and labor is generally taxed at twice the rate of capital. The billionaire who relies upon investments and capital gains for income generally doesn’t pay income taxes or payroll taxes on his gains. And if the billionaire is a real estate baron, he benefits from the inflation that makes his mortgage debt easier to pay.”
To fully appreciate Eddlem’s critique, imagine the following scenario. The U.S. government withdraws from every military alliance, shuts down every single one of its foreign military & intelligence bases & installations, and brings all of our troops, spies, and contractors home. It then grants full independence to all of its territories or in the case of uninhabited ones, leaves them to nature.
This would seemingly free the U.S. government from being categorized by the definition of empires given by American Historian Daniel Immerwahr:
“…polities that have colonies and outposts.”
Now imagine the U.S. government sells Alaska back to Russia and gives Hawaii back to the Kānaka Maoli. The United States has been reduced to the “48 contiguous states,” the “Mainland,” or “CONUS.”
In such a scenario, the U.S. government would still be an empire. Because what are we even talking about? One city, Washington, D.C., ruling over a multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural population spread over 3.1 million square miles. Can you imagine the elite from ancient Persepolis, ancient Athens, and ancient Rome visiting Washington, D.C. and being shown maps of CONUS?
Imagine Emperor Charlemagne visiting the White House and being given a lecture on CONUS by Victor Davis Hanson and John Meacham. He would certainly see the analogous nature of the U.S. president and state governors to the emperor and kings of his domain. And while a clever ideologue can make the case that the U.S. government does not extract tribute from its vassals (it actually does; minerals for example), there is no way to hide its extractions from the population of CONUS.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall said, “The power to tax involves the power to destroy,” and D.C. crushes American workers with this power every day of their lives. The empire has its intellectual comforters who defend D.C.’s diabolical doings. The despicable Cato Institute is filled with them. Eddlem said:
“The Cato Institute, a regime ‘libertarian’ group inside the Washington DC beltway, spends most of its time focused on federal budgeting, fretting about whether top-level income taxes for the wealthiest are on the wrong side of the Laffer Curve (see here and here). Not surprisingly, more than half of their donations come from just five anonymous billionaire donors ($32.925 million total in 2023), according to its IRS filings. The Cato Institute used to be called the Charles Koch Foundation, after the billionaire who helped found the organization.
Of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with finding a few billionaire donors who are willing to support you year after year. But these billionaires know what they are funding, and they are getting return for their investments. And if Cato tried to buck the establishment, its income would dry up. Cato knows its core audience, and it’s not working people.
Like the Democrats, Cato doesn’t even offer the working classes any crumbs. Cato’s institutional slogan may as well be, ‘The poors just aren’t paying enough in taxes.’”
It is highly fitting that Eddlem is the William Norman Grigg Fellow. Grigg argued that to the state’s retail distributors of violence, most civilians are “the mundanes.” Eddlem shows that the entire apparatus of the state views us that way.
If you live in CONUS, welcome to the Empire.
