But when you think about our Constitution and the laws that govern our country, our founding fathers and their supposed wisdom, they wanted a government that would derive its power from the consent of the governed. But they also wanted an empire, and so they built both. A government that at its center, gave citizens a vote and an empire that as it expanded, constantly controlled the lands and the lives of people who had no say. And so while over the generations of American democracy, that center has changed, who is included in that center has changed, the edge of empire never went away.

Rebecca Nagle