[WildUtah]

It has made all non-democratic forms of government illegitimate by waging wars of extermination against them

I agree with a lot of your post, but it wasn't anything the US government did that made all non-democratic forms of government illegitimate. They have all been illegitimate since the very first time a gang of stronger men beat and killed a weaker one just because they could.

[jemfinch]

Except that democracy itself consists of a gang of more people beating up gangs of fewer people just because they can. It merely substitutes numbers for strength.

Neither might nor popularity makes right.

[barry-cotter]

Illegitimate as in outside the bounds of polite society's discourse, not as in something you abhor.

[mindslight]

But when the beating is instead performed by a large gang of weak men, it's legitimate?