A Republic or an Empire?

I have stated my disdain for both political parties on many occasions. I started life as a Democrat and only recently decided to disassociate myself with any party. They are both, in my opinion, evil and corrupt.
Our country is in dire straits, both in foreign relations and domestic policy. I like some libertarian thought, but the idea of an organized Libertarian Party somehow misses the mark.
Charley Reese wrote an excellent article about where we are and how we got there. I am including an excerpt and a link to the entire article.

Truly, sometimes I think there is nothing new on the face of the earth. Here's a quotation cited by Mark Twain around the turn of the 19th century. Read it and see if you don't recognize it from today's political discourse:
"Even if the war be wrong we are in it and must fight it out: we cannot retire from it without dishonor."
That war was in the Philippines. Perhaps you remember it from your history books. We "liberated" the country from the clutch of Spanish colonialism, but then decided we would just replace the Spanish rather than grant the people independence. They resisted, and we fought a second war in the islands against Filipino patriots.
Today, all of our politicians, with few exceptions, take the same position in regard to Iraq: Well, it may have been the wrong thing to do, but we're there and we can't leave without a victory. I heard the same refrain about the Vietnam War. Whatever happened to the saying "Inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war"? The only thing that delaying our departure from Vietnam accomplished was more casualties on all sides. The only thing that delaying our departure from Iraq will accomplish is more casualties on all sides.
Why would it be a stain on our honor to end the occupation of Iraq and hand the country back to the Iraqi people to govern as they please? It is, after all, their country, not ours; the oil is their oil, not ours. Not one candidate has the guts to say, "As soon as I'm president, I will order American troops to begin withdrawal." What happens after we leave is an Iraqi problem, not ours.
Americans had better get shut of their imperial delusions and fast, because we are following the path of every empire that has ever existed toward bankruptcy. Do you really want high gas prices, food rationing, health-care rationing and unbearable debt? What kind of standard of living do you think we can maintain with a collapsed education system, a broken infrastructure, a debilitated manufacturing sector and a debt-imploded failed economy?
Original Article