We dislike ancient-style empire because it’s hard, protracted work — costly labor that calls upon old-timey values we no longer believe in. But we also dislike it because, from our democratic standpoint, it’s ridiculously inefficient, primitive, and unfair. We want to dominate others quickly and from afar, without spending a lot of time or money. And we don’t want to dominate them because we’re flag-worshipping reactionaries. We want to do it for much less parochial reasons, such as unifying the world and promoting freedom and destroying evil.

What’s more, we can hardly imagine what else a morally good foreign policy could look like.

Of course, many self-styled progressives think that real progress is peaceful and anti-imperialist — just as many paleoconservatives think the same about real conservatism. Unfortunately for both camps, our American vision of empire taps into our yearning for true progress just as much as the regressive vision of a Caliphate taps into our enemies’ yearning for true conservatism.