Ostensible ‘conservatives’ have been just as complicit in turning our Republic into an empire.
To this day there are people on here for whom having about 800 military bases in 70 countries can be rationalized; the support on FR and many other “conservative” sites for the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, and, going back, to intervening in Vietnam has been loud, strong, and attacked all disagreement as ‘anti-American.
We stupidly gave up our Republic for Empire long ago, so long that it has been rationalized as ‘normal.
Playing “world hegemon” was the political consensus after Ww2 just as “isolationism” was after WW1. That consensus is unraveling as 1 political party — the Republicans — backs away from it leaving the Democrats holding the political bag.