I will say within fairness, maximizing the wealth of every American citizen at the expense of others in the world is not exactly my idea of patriotism. That is within reason though. Oil does not give the US dollar value, it's the other way around. Lets face it, the Saudis need to be taught that this country is capable of breaking the petrochemical habit, and while we can go solar they can go back to sucking sand.
As a matter of fact, exploitation without the spread of the founding ideals is more along the lines of the NeCon values, but we also have to recognize that without the threat of followups to the Shays rebellion, there never would have been a bill of rights and one of the big reasons why people in other parts of the world shifted from loving America and Americans to hating us was they were getting our flag waved in their face and told all about Yankee superiority, without anyone pushing for their versions of the bill of Rights. That was an easy choice for the exploiters, since they could kind of sideline the BOR while still claiming to be constitutionalist Americans. It was when Americans got viewed as exploiters and not liberators that caused the shift. When Reagan was speaking for us, everyone knew what we said we stood for, and anyone saying otherwise at the ground level was immediately called out as a phoney patriot or false American. No wonder the Neocons tried harder than the radical liberals to kill him.
The trick when dealing with foreign policy, even at the micro level, is that it will attract immigration from those frustrated by conditions at "home" but the other side is we also have a lot of people who need options, need to be able to get out of the country to enclaves of international liberty. Places where "the Americans are coming" means good booze, good food, beautiful women, the individual right to keep and bear arms, speak your mind and peaceably address grievances, engage in free trade even though the local satrap does not like it.
One thing that the contraction of American influence in the world is doing in our favor is demonstrating how the non-American internationals treat people a hell of a lot worse than we ever did. From North Korean logging outfits in Siberia working on contract for the British to local corruption and pseudo slavery in the southern Pacific. A lot of places that kicked the Americans out are worse off for it. Even if there is one major economic lesson to be learned from the war in Vietnam, the eviction of American influence there with the "support" of every communist regime around seemed to just make it more of a shithole. Same with North Korea.
There is a "secret" to the possibility of some real advancement for America's educated young people in the world but it will always be a game that only the most adventurous can take advantage of, and that is a pioneering grant and financial support system for the expansion of the true American ideals overseas, through a system which is not directly tied to the US government, and is at least self sufficient enough that it can diplomatically withdraw from the government when those kinds of decisions become necessary.
