*Emperor Bush the last President of the American Republic and the first Emperor of the "Great American Empire."*
I keep reading this statement here. It's a nice soundbite but is it based on any
objective evidence?
The USA doesn't properly meet the 'classic' markers for being an empire but it could be argued that the Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty' has been taken to heart by some, and lives on in mutated form as US foreign policy.
But of course, that's hard for a nation to admit given that conventional wisdom holds imperialism as pretty much by definition -
evil. Reagan seemed to think so, though he was hardly the sharpest tool in the box, and was speaking for public consumption and driven by events. GW was less specific with his 'Axis of Evil' rhetoric. Co-incidentally the same applies to him as Reagan, if not more so.
Much historical judgement of imperialism is rooted as much in the mundane human elements of empire; personal greed and the centralisation of power in a single individual as in a critical analysis of any
fundemental inerent evil of imperialism. People tend to remember the more notable emperors of our past as 'evil' - Darius, Khan, Timur, (Caligula, Nero, Commodus and Domitian), Suleiman (Not S. the 1st but the 'magnificent one') to name but a few.
Many of the above
were unquestionably unsavoury characters through and through but some have been misrepresented merely by being tarred with that broad imperialist brush. There is mileage in the argument that imperialism is, at least in part merely as good, or evil as it's leader.
If that has any validity, I don't believe Bush is evil any more than I believe he is potential emperor material. On the first criteria, he isn't intelligent enought to meet an sensible incarnation of 'evil'. On the second; well, he has some serious 'historical' shoes to fill yet has consistently demonstrated possession of undersized feet. In short, Bush simply lacks the
gravitas necessary to lead America into a 'new' era of overt imperialism, good or bad.
That's not to say his successors can't pick up the baton and see where it takes them, though personally I think America's window of opportunity has passed. Potentially bigger fish now inhabit our global pond, and they have sharper teeth, clearer minds and, it would appear a willingness to break those metaphorical eggs with impunity.
History will judge this period, and harshly I suspect.
These rather contradictory articles may amuse..
Victor Davis Hanson on American Empire on National Review Online
American Imperialism? No Need to Run Away from Label - Council on Foreign Relations