The semiotics of Gothic architecture prize religious orders and divinely anointed kings. Notions of citizenship and universal political equality are alien to it. It's why America represented its pursuit of democracy with the new Federal style after winning its independence. Representing democratic ideals are why America chose iconography from Athens for its neoclassic buildings.

The problem with Gothic architecture in America is not so much that it looks back, but where its gaze points. It points at Earls and Dukes and the entrenchment of an entitled class.