Empire? Republic? Mutually exclusive. The USA's crimes against humanity reveal a cultural ethos that accepts destruction of people's lives, and outright murder, as integral to its existence as a nation-state. This renders any allusions to a democratic republic, at best rhetorical fluff, at worst a self-parody. One of the better outcomes in the 21st Century is that far fewer folks worldwide are buying the propaganda of world-protecting empire, which the agents of US imperialism— the CIA et al. — are constantly injecting into the global conversation; even as they use every means available to wage covert economic and overt physical destruction on societies that resist becoming vassals for its imperialistic and biosphere-destructive crapitaslism.