> We traded our Republic for an Empire after WW2. <
Along those lines, I once read an article where the author said that the great victory the United States won in 1945 essentially ruined our thinking. We were now invincible, and capable of achieving any goal. No more restraints for us!
Well, that kind of thinking works until it doesn’t. Then the payment comes due.
I think it went back to the Spanish-American War.