these are grim days for fans of liberal international order<u+2014>or <u+201c>globalists,<u+201d> to use the preferred slur among donald trump <u+2019>s online minions. the liberal idea<u+2014>the philosophy of individual rights and free markets that forms the common ground of mainstream politics in the west<u+2014>is battered and unloved. mr. trump<u+2019>s takeover of the gop was only the latest and most depressing sign. republicans, co-architects of the postwar liberal order, have now put their presidential hopes in a nominee who denigrates nato, calls for scrapping major trade deals, and rants about foreign bankers and disloyal americans out to destroy u.s. sovereignty. whatever happens on nov. 8, this illiberal tide won<u+2019>t soon recede, certainly not in europe. the illiberals know what they want, and they know how to share their vision in the age of the twitter troll. mr. trump wasn<u+2019>t the first to hit upon <u+201c>globalism<u+201d> as the enemy of wholesome national solidarity. such ideas have deeper roots in europe, where mr. trump<u+2019>s kindred spirits are more disciplined and articulate. marine le pen doesn<u+2019>t speak in free-association gibberish. most important, the illiberals have found a global leader, not in mr. trump, but in vladimir putin. the russian strongman uses his sleek broadcast networks to boost moscow-friendly parties across the west, usually on the far right. but more helpful than his propaganda efforts for the illiberals is the ideological alternative mr. putin offers. once again, the illiberals rejoice, liberalism has a rival. (islamism, though savage and deadly, was never a serious contender.) mr. putin thus presents a clarifying moral and political acid test in the west. here<u+2019>s one version of the test: do you see mr. putin heading a thuggish, authoritarian regime that murders dissidents and threatens western security and interests? or do you see him as an avatar of national sovereignty and christian vigor, a bulwark against a decadent liberalism more concerned with transgender bathrooms than with policing the west<u+2019>s borders or taking care of workers hammered by globalization? it shouldn<u+2019>t escape notice that nearly all of europe<u+2019>s ascendant illiberals take the second view. ms. le pen<u+2019>s national front in france, the alternative for germany movement, hungary<u+2019>s ruling fidesz party and the even nastier jobbik, the austrian freedom party, britain<u+2019>s ukip<u+2014>all welcome mr. putin<u+2019>s project to varying degrees. hungarian prime minister viktor orb<u+00e1>n expressed their position most succinctly when he mused in 2014 about <u+201c>building an illiberal state<u+201d> with russia (and china) as models. mr. trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly expressed admiration for mr. putin and even apologized for the russian<u+2019>s rights record by suggesting that the u.s. government is equally murderous. his gop defenders say mr. trump<u+2019>s apparent affinity for the kremlin is nonideological. yet the new york developer<u+2019>s statements have been frequent and sustained enough to suggest there<u+2019>s more than personal vanity at work, while a distinct putinophilia marks the wider trumpian orbit. for those who wish to preserve the world of unprecedented prosperity and cultural dynamism that liberalism has created, it isn<u+2019>t enough to insist that mr. putin runs a thugocracy. it isn<u+2019>t enough to point out that the supposedly devout mr. putin is moving to severely restrict worship and missionary activity in russia for all faiths except russian orthodoxy<u+2014>or that orthodox christianity doesn<u+2019>t sanction kremlin-scale graft for that matter. it isn<u+2019>t enough, finally, to note how this defender of sovereignty is trying to subjugate sovereign nations across the former soviet space. most voters in europe and the u.s. get all this, notwithstanding the estimated $300 million the kremlin spends annually on russia today alone. they get it, and yet many still flock to leaders who fail the putin moral acid test. and the main reason is that liberal order has suffered a decade of lousy leadership on both sides of the atlantic. under president obama, angela merkel, fran<u+00e7>ois hollande and the like, the liberal vision really has been reduced to fighting for transgender bathroom rights as the world burns. for mr. obama, liberal order really does mean endless multilateralism and diplomatic procedure for their own sake. the european equivalent, pressed by the likes of mrs. merkel and mr. hollande, is the idea of <u+201c>more europe,<u+201d> more european union <u+201c>norms<u+201d> and bureaucracy, as the solution to every crisis. liberal leaders couldn<u+2019>t afford to look so feeble for so long without making the liberal-democratic model look feeble<u+2014>and the putinist alternative decisive and strong. it will likely fall to president hillary clinton to reverse this ideological balance of forces. let<u+2019>s hope she brings all her supposedly centrist instincts to the oval office. for now, it<u+2019>s no small relief that a republican nominee who so manifestly failed the putin test seems to be heading for a thumping at the polls.
the vladimir putin test - wsj
sohrab ahmari