Trump, Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Bush Family, Dick Cheney - these are the names we know, but the truth is that our corrupt system of government, the worldwide dominance of a few massive multinational corporations, and our military industrial complex constitute the three pillars of an overarching American Empire, an empire that at its heart is evil, and I do not use that word that lightly.

This empire is not a new development, and the crimes against humanity for which it is responsible go back decades. The only difference today is that the empire is no longer even attempting to hide itself. It directly requires the efforts of thousands of people, most of whom do not consider their actions to exploit the people of the world - to encourage regime change, salve labor, endless war, and the depletion and pollution of essential resources necessary to life on this planet - as bad things.

What the Bernie Sanders campaign exposed when this empire marshaled all of its many resources to defeat him is just the tip of the iceberg. We are not fighting against mere personalities, such as Hillary or Trump, or a faction of corrupt politicians, but a global system of elites and the corporate entities who use their money to control many governments, but most importantly our own. Elites who rely upon the increased build-up and use of American military power to sustain themselves. To change this system will not just take a political revolution, but a complete change in our society from top to bottom. It will literally require the concerted and sustained actions of millions willing to stand up against evil for us to have any hope of effecting such changes.

Recognizing the true extent of the problem requires us to give it its true name - American Empire - and to loudly and frequently decry its many harmful and dangerous actions as evil. For this is not a simple problem of fixing our electoral politics, but of of overthrowing and replacing a system of that is deeply embedded in our culture and our society. It does not rely on any single cult of personality, but on a millions of people who are in denial regarding what our country is and what it does. We must acknowledge its scope and its true nature, before we can hope to fully empower a movement large enough and powerful enough to not only defeat it, but to replace it with a civilization that values all lives and a sustainable world over the dangers inherent in the mindless pursuit of profits, power, and war at the expense of human misery, death and the destruction of our planet.