Empire: A political unit having an extensive territory or comprising a number of territories or nations and ruled by a single supreme authority. Imperial or imperialistic sovereignty, domination, or control. (www.dictionary.com)

I struggled for some time with the title of this article. I might also have called it "Way Worse Than 'I Told You So'" after having written for months, even years, that the charade we have just witnessed, called an election, would be a repeat performance of the coup d'etat of 2000. Was this election stolen? Unquestionably. The list of likely illegal acts in this election is no less than mind numbing. But if you wish to read them, they can be found at: www.accuracy.org/new.htm

Some months ago, I wrote an article entitled "Why I Will Not Vote in 2004" and incurred the wrath of those folks who were hell bent on voting for the "lesser evil." They could not grasp my position because their paradigm would not allow them to do so. Their paradigm goes something like this: We are still living in a democracy, although we are about to lose it, and we will lose it if G.W. Bush gets elected. So even though John Kerry is an imperialist, corporate lap dog-suck-up, we can "elect him and then fight him." Never mind that Kerry IS the ruling elite and is the embodiment of the neoliberal establishment which seeks kinder, gentler world domination and social legislation domestically that dutifully buttresses the agenda of corporate capitalism while pretending to "regulate" it. These individuals are in this moment nursing their broken hearts that Kerry lost but grasping at whatever straws of hope they might find for 2008. What they also don't get is that there isn't going to BE a 2008—well yes, there will be a 2008, but it is highly unlikely that it will include a Presidential election, and if it does, it won't be a clean, fair, equitable, democratic one.

What few people in America understand, despite the astute observations of millions of individuals around the world, is that we are living in an empire, and we are no longer living in a democracy. Every last semblance of democracy in our nation that, in our desperate denial, we leave our claw marks on, is evaporating with each tick of the clock.. America's allies and enemies internationally are calling like it is: Within four years, the so-called democratic republic of the United States will be unrecognizable. Without question, we can expect the destruction of Roe v. Wade, the packing of the Supreme Court with Christian fascist maniacs, the invasion of Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Colombia, to name a few. Even more horrifying is the likelihood that one of the cavalier, oil-sucking exploits will end up in a nuclear exchange. We can count on a ghastly tanking of the U.S. economy and a government policy of privatization (piratization?) on steroids. Endless versions of and addendums to the Patriot Act will become the law of the land, and another terrorist attack, deliberately planned, orchestrated and financed by persons in the U.S. government and the energy and financial sectors will almost certainly occur. It will undoubtedly catapult the nation into Code Red and martial law. The folks who could not grasp the futility of voting for a corporate candidate or a third-party candidate who cannot possibly win have not allowed themselves to comprehend that the Machiavelli-worshipping neoconservatives of the Bush Crime Family WILL NEVER, I said, WILL NEVER, turn over this government willingly—not in 2004, not in 2008, not EVER. They proudly proclaim that they have no problem with doing WHATEVER is required to remain in power. That includes rigging elections, assassinations, book-cooking, and above all, carefully crafting their personal propaganda machine, the American corporate media.

When an old paradigm no longer serves its adherents, serving the paradigm becomes absurdly self-destructive. Already, liberal democrats are delusionally thinking about the election they naively assume will happen in 2008, determined to resuscitate the decrepit, dying paradigm which fantasizes that some Hillary or some Obama will save us. When people understand the term, "fascist empire," and when they fully grasp that they are living in one, they will no longer waste precious physical, mental, or spiritual energy applying the band-aids of defunct democracy to the cancer of world domination and domestic devourment.

On September 11, 2001, all the rules and paradigms of our post-Cold War world were incinerated in the ashes of Ground Zero. For the past three years, 9-11 researchers (not the ones that produce substandard fiction like the 9-11 Commission Report) have gathered enough evidence to convict and imprison for life as war criminals the perpetrators many times over. Hint: The perpetrators were not Islamic terrorists, although Islamic terrorists were used as intelligence assets by the United States government to commit the atrocities. When we understand the motive, means, and opportunity (the three factors all criminal investigators examine first, but which the Kean Commission couldn’t be bothered with) of September 11, we will understand unequivocally that we no longer live in a democratic republic, but rather a burgeoning fascist empire. All of this exhaustive research can be examined at: www.globalresearch.ca and www.septembereleventh.org . If the thought of exploring this issue further immediately causes you to feel overwhelmed and longing to find the nearest sofa on which to curl up and take a nap, be aware that that is exactly what the perpetrators are counting on. However, until we get to the bottom of exactly what happened on September 11, 2001, who perpetrated the crimes, for what reason, who benefited and how, we have no chance of defeating the empire.

As citizens living in the belly of the beast, we must not only think about how to defeat the empire, but also how to merely survive living within it. In order to do so, one must understand the concept of Peak Oil—one of the principal reasons for the 9-11 attacks. Peak Oil is simply that moment in time when global oil and natural gas begin an irreversible and permanent decline which cannot be thwarted no matter how much money, effort, or alternative forms of energy are spent trying to change it. Although Peak Oil is something we will only know with certainty when we see it in the rear view mirror of history, we are clearly, dangerously in the throes of it at this moment. For the latest research on Peak Oil, see: www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net and the website of geologist, Dale Allen Pfieffer at http://home.earthlink.net/~annallen0416/energydepletion.html .

Both corporate candidates of 2004 have been aware of the realities of Peak Oil, but had they to come clean with the American people, they would have risked putting the markets and the citizenry in chaos, not to mention decreasing the value of their own oil stocks. Peak Oil is a global energy crisis of a magnitude previously unknown to the human race and will cause food prices to skyrocket and the American way of life as we know it to disappear. It means the end of sustainability and growth on planet earth. No candidate who seriously aspires to receiving votes can even think about discussing this issue.

Some uninformed individuals erroneously insist that Peak Oil is a scam perpetrated by oil companies and vehemently attack those of us who take it seriously. In response to them, I would offer a paraphrase from Dale Allen Pfieffer: Peak Oil does not need to be defended; it will defend itself quite effectively within the next decade.  For comprehensive research on the 9-11 attacks and their connection with Peak Oil, all citizens who wish to be thoroughly informed should attentively read CROSSING THE RUBICON: The Decline Of The American Empire At The End Of The Age Of Oil, by Mike Ruppert.

So what solutions do I propose?

• First, we must willing to face the reality that we do, in fact, live in an empire and that that empire is plummeting headlong into unrestrained fascism. This means the death of our relentless fantasies that we still live in a democracy or that the old paradigm based "electing the right candidate" can serve us. We have had three corrupt elections in America in the past four years. Continuing to believe that we will have a clean one in 2008 is tantamount to insisting that the earth is flat.

• Secondly, we can join with millions—yes millions, of Americans who will not swallow the foul, fairytale version of what happened on September 11, 2001. Rather than obsessing over who might be the "right" candidate to "save" us, we can choose to work in a grassroots movement with victims' families and other truth-demanding citizens for a totally transparent investigation of that watershed moment in time which the empire will continue to use to justify its devourment of other nations and its own citizens. I believe that a grassroots movement of 9-11 truth-tellers has the potential for total transformation of the political landscape of the United States, and I personally will settle for nothing less than that level of social and political renovation.

• In addition, it behooves us to begin to massively conserve energy on an unprecedented scale and learn how to grow our own food, as well as learn techniques of emergency and non-traditional health care. (See The Party's Over, and Power Down, by Richard Heinberg)

•  Finally, we must wake up and smell the fascism and the futility of its rigged elections. More than ever, after witnessing yet another coup d'etat on November 2, 2004, I celebrate W.E.B. Dubois' assessment that "the two parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a 'gentlemen's agreement' of non-recognition, no matter how we vote...May God write us down as asses if ever again we are found putting our trust in either Republican or the Democratic parties."

Carolyn Baker is a Professor of U.S. History and can be contacted at cbaker@nmsu.edu.

Other Articles by Carolyn Baker

* Stepford America