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Speaking of parlor games, I wish the author would consider Harry Truman, student of Rome. He never attended college, but his history teacher turned him into a life-long specialist in Roman politics and civilization. This is important because he first had the opportunity in 1945 to "rule" America as the sole nuclear superpower.
There were personal and instutional factors that caused Truman never to take seriously advice that we should act like an empire. He knew, from his education, that we could not rule the world through nuclear weapons without becoming a totalitarian empire just like Rome. The question is, what has changed in America since Truman's day? Much has not changed since the 2nd Red Scare and Joe McCarthy. But something has changed that allows the continued drift toward George Orwell's world.
