It is a clear objective of the neo-conservative cabal that currently runs American foreign policy to restore Imperial America (they ignore, as they do many other inconvenient facts, the fact that the United States has never done imperialism particularly well). The truth, though, is that their actions have only served to diminish America’s stature on the world stage, not enhance it.
Exhibit A: Hu Jintao, the president of China—the country that most observers believe will be the most important country in the world by the year 2100—is making his first visit to the United States. But the first banquet in his honor? Not at the White House… but rather at Bill Gates’ mansion.
I don’t think that the symbolism is accidental.