I had a long discussion with Drew over why the US is unable to project soft power, its foreign policy options being military action or isolationism. I was not able to get a coherent answer to that [the why, the how and what are more-or-less clear], and I don't fault Drew, he was honestly trying.

So the question is still open: why can't the US project "soft power"?

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman