I think part of the point is that aspects beyond democracy are taken for granted. The US citizenship and model of "being Roman" is pretty imperial in many ways. It has undersung virtues of tolerance. It doesn't matter if you were Greek, Gaul, Barbarian, or even Carthigian - once a citizen you are fundamentally Roman. Viewing nationality as not an immutable accident of birth is pretty damn "Roman". Many "modern" issues like Political Correctness and Multiculturalism are millenia old and can really be better described as "Imperial" Issues. They are encountered due to past and present expansionism and and broad interactions. Despite the negative connotations not everything classified as Imperialism is bad - just as it is a mistake to ignore the travesties of empires so is it a mistake to ignore its virtues.

Rome had many periods and the dynamics have played out before and provided disturbingly apt precedents even with the alien trappings and values.