I live in a small, remote country but I'm an avid traveller and follower of geopolitics. Since 2016's twin shocks of Brexit and Trump, I've been as dismayed as most of you about how badly the progressive experiment - and indeed the Enlightenment itself - seems to have stumbled.
Putin’s appalling invasion of Ukraine reminds us of the direct risks of supporting and perpetuating autocrats, and the overriding need to confront them. But I can't help but feel the most consequential fights for all our futures lie in the US. The 2020 election and what followed was both a clear sign that most Americans wanted to repudiate Trumpism, and a very clear warning that it wasn't going to go softly into the night.
And that matters, because America remains the world's sole superpower. If fascists gain a stronger foothold than the one they enjoyed under Trump — if the rule of law fails even more — there is no coalition of outside forces which is going to rescue any of us from the harms they represent. Their rule, and the damage they inflict everywhere, could last generations. Think Russia — not just with nukes, but also with the US economy and the US military.
Remember, even Hitler's incompetent militarism gave Germany and the world more than a decade of misery and death. Even Putin - who now looks more like a man of straw than a world leader - has intentionally shaped events across the world in ways that have hurt us badly, and continue to hurt us.
We can't count on extremists to be their own worst enemy, we must act against them. Ukrainians know that to their bone - we must internalise it as well. The threat is right here, and right now.
As Tom Nichols says in the Atlantic Daily:
Contain and defeat. If we really are to be partisans of democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and basic decency, then this is a painful truth. Policy has its limits. Negotiations must be grounded in not only good faith but reality, and not lies or myths.
The demands of extremists are meant to be impossible to fulfill: America must convert to Islam, Ukraine must accept Moscow’s rule, the election must be overturned and Mike Pence hanged. People issuing such demands are not interested in discussion or compromise; indeed, they’d be disappointed if they got what they wanted, because their anger sustains them and gives meaning to their lives. When faced with such movements and their demands, there is only one response: Contain and defeat.
I can’t vote in America. I can’t legally send money to get progressives elected. I’m not on the ground to lick envelopes, make calls or knock on doors. But I can write from time to time in defence of a decent, honest, rational and tolerant world.
That world’s not lost - it's all around us, sometimes in the most unexpected of places. But we do have to fight for it.
Kia kaha!