Despite the political rhetoric, America is not defined by its division into red and blue states, but by its addiction to imperialism, exceptionalism and a military budget that positions it as The United States of War. In the United States, Arizona has come to represent many things; a super-magnet for the ignorant, the backward and the insane; a home to racial supremacists and xenophobes and, most of all, a laboratory for hate legislation.

And yet its real political function nowadays is that of a convenient political distraction.

Truth is, Arizona is but a mirror of the rest of the nation. It is what permits Americans to point the finger at this desolate state, allowing them to feel superior because it represents what America isn’t. Arizona is purportedly the past, symbolized by its right wing kooks like Gov. Jan Brewer, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Attorney General Tom Horne, ad nauseam.

But Arizona is an aberration only in a symbolic sense. Such “aberrations” permit the media overlords and their talking heads to have a field day discussing our most recent elections. It permits them to exuberantly dissect the exit polls, break down demographics, examine the Latino and women’s vote and the coming new majority, which includes people of color, white women and the LGBT community. It permits them to discuss what this means for the future of the nation, without ever broaching the most important topic of all: war.

For many conservatives, this coming new majority – represented by the browning of America – is already here and signals the end of the American Dream. For these conservatives, President Obama and this new majority are prima facie evidence for what Fox commentator Bill O’Reilly recently proclaimed: that traditional America no longer exists.

Contrarily, for the liberal talking heads, this new majority represents a more enlightened America; one that believes in human rights for all and that is more tolerant and more embracing of different peoples, cultures, languages, lifestyles and beliefs. The liberal talking heads believe in the possibility of a new America.

With the president’s re-election, it appears that the old America is withering away while the new one is ascendant. And there is no turning back.

If this were true, even at a symbolic level, this would represent great news. But this is not quite reality. Through all this discussion, nary a word has been spoken about the business of America: not democracy, not human rights, not equality, but this nation’s addiction to war.

Who can deny that for all intents and purposes, we now live in The United States of War? Translation: The USA is the imperial power of our times.

ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: America’s Future: War and Peace in the 21st Century.