How can a democracy turn empire?

Democracies tend to turn empirical when a major threat to the democracy occurs, in which the democracy sheds their freedoms from dictatorial protection. Yes, their is a difference between a democracy and a republic. The U.S. is by no means even CLOSE to a democracy, it is a Federal Constitutional Republic by international and national definition. Dictatorship is essentially the same as empire, with a few differences in between. For Adam, there is no such thing as a representative democracy. That is a horrible lie taught to children in elementary and middle school. In reality, republics/rep. democracies are dictators who have been elected from a small pool of candidates. Point in case- the U.S. We get to choose from 2 major candidates, then they and congress make ALL the decisions. Yeah, "power to the people" right there.