Wavering democracies, bullying dictators
Over the last decade, more countries around the world have become less free, according to a Freedom House report.
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Over the last decade, more countries around the world have become less free, according to a Freedom House report.
Putin's pursuit of neo-Soviet ideals, like projecting Russian strength in foreign policy, paired with his near-total control of the media, has resulted in "a generation whose dreams are the embodiment of everything Putin desires them to be: conformist, materialist, and highly risk averse."
As noted by many, Trump's success in America coincides with a strong tide of global authoritarianism, with far-right-wing populists being democratically elected in every region of the world.
A brief overview of Trump's kindred spirits:
In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyp Erdoğan has increasingly stepped into a strongman role. For instance, ordering an extremely harsh police response to the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, resulting in the deaths of at least three activists and thousands being injured. He has increasingly moved to shut down the free press, especially after the attempted coup earlier this year; the same coup attempt that emboldened him to "purge" Turkish civil society of his enemies, and fire hundreds of thousands of teachers, engineers, police officers, judges, and government officials. Like Trump, Erdoğan is extremely paranoid. He won the 2012 election by stoking fears about a "deep state" working to overthrow Turkish society—which isn't necessarily to say that there aren't those working against him. A number of pro-Erdoğan columnists in Turkey have expressed their support for Trump—somewhat surprising as Erdoğan is an Islamist who has called for Trump's name to be removed from a skyscraper in Istanbul—by linking Clinton and the Turkish "deep state." In return, Trump has said the US shouldn't criticize Erdoğan for his purge. The two had a phone call on Wednesday about how they're going to fight terrorism together.
Newly-elected Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, whose spite for the US and its role in the Phillippines' colonial history seemingly knows no bounds, said he would stop "quarreling" with the US once Trump takes over. "I would like to congratulate Mr. Donald Trump. Long live," he said during a speech in Malaysia. "We are both making curses. Even with trivial matters we curse. I was supposed to stop because Trump is there. I don't want to quarrel anymore, because Trump has won." (The two seem to have a shared penchant for rape jokes.) Duterte has, of course, since taking office this summer, compared himself to Hitler and said that it's his mission to kill the Philippines' three million or so drug addicts. So far, that has resulted in death squads, extrajudicial police killings, and some 2,000 killings as of late August across the country.
Across Europe, the rise of a Trump has been reflected many times over. In Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, and, of course, the UK, angry white backlash against liberalizing social values—plus a fear of brown people, mostly refugees—has led to far-right white nationalist parties taking increasingly large amounts of parliamentary seats and governmental roles.
Robert Reich draws a line between Trump's authoritarianism and the weakness of institutions like unions to counter his policies. Not coincidentally, unions are state puppets or nonexistent in many countries run by Trump-like authoritarian populists.
The two countries who stand to benefit most from Trump's "America First" foreign policy are China and Russia, the leaders of which both supported Trump's rise via propaganda and who are poised to pick up new patron nations as America abandons its foreign aid policies.