I suppose I don't recall the world before 2016 as any sort of a liberal golden age that would warrant turning back the clock. Bill Clinton ramming through NAFTA with minor cosmetic alterations after promising to oppose it, and moving to normalize trade with China under the ludicrous fantasy that hollowing out American manufacturing would somehow foster human rights in a country that had committed the Tiananmen Massacre less than a decade before. George W. Bush exploiting the grief of 9/11 to pass the Patriot Act and smear those who questioned the war in Iraq, and then attempting to ram through cynical "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" that would only have encouraged a greater influx of migrants. Barack Obama weaponizing the IRS, selling the Affordable Care Act on blatantly false premises, imposing DACA after acknowledging that doing so would be illegal, persecuting a random amateur filmmaker to distract from the Benghazi incident, and pledging to rule by "pen and phone" when Congress refused to be a rubber stamp for his agenda. In Europe, the shamelessly undemocratic E.U. ramming through the Treaty of Lisbon after electorates repeatedly rejected the European Constitution and demanded more substantively democratic representation. Angela Merkel unilaterally throwing open the borders to millions of unvetted migrants, etc. etc.
No, the world of early 2016 was already hurtling towards authoritarianism, and it is more than a little absurd for 2025 establishmentarians to be condemning authoritarian governance when they enthusiastically supported a slightly more genteel iron fist less than ten years ago (and if you count efforts in Europe to ban opposition parties, within the past few weeks!). If one really wants to stop national populist movements, one needs to acknowledge the unconscionable abuses from the governing class that has led to their rise.
As a liberal European one question we are asking ourselves is : What has happened to the Democrats? Where are they? We hear nothing from them here in Europe. It's as if they are still in shock and paralysed by the results of the 2024 election.
Friends have told me that if we watch certain "obscure" news channels, we will find them there. But for sure, they are nowhere to be seen, or heard, on the mainstream media.
I am not quite as certain that the world from before 2016 needs to be written off entirely. We didn't see 1989 coming; we didn't see the present moment coming either. But that underlines the main point here: that we all have choices to make and can work to preserve liberty. Thank you for publishing this.
I suppose I don't recall the world before 2016 as any sort of a liberal golden age that would warrant turning back the clock. Bill Clinton ramming through NAFTA with minor cosmetic alterations after promising to oppose it, and moving to normalize trade with China under the ludicrous fantasy that hollowing out American manufacturing would somehow foster human rights in a country that had committed the Tiananmen Massacre less than a decade before. George W. Bush exploiting the grief of 9/11 to pass the Patriot Act and smear those who questioned the war in Iraq, and then attempting to ram through cynical "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" that would only have encouraged a greater influx of migrants. Barack Obama weaponizing the IRS, selling the Affordable Care Act on blatantly false premises, imposing DACA after acknowledging that doing so would be illegal, persecuting a random amateur filmmaker to distract from the Benghazi incident, and pledging to rule by "pen and phone" when Congress refused to be a rubber stamp for his agenda. In Europe, the shamelessly undemocratic E.U. ramming through the Treaty of Lisbon after electorates repeatedly rejected the European Constitution and demanded more substantively democratic representation. Angela Merkel unilaterally throwing open the borders to millions of unvetted migrants, etc. etc.
No, the world of early 2016 was already hurtling towards authoritarianism, and it is more than a little absurd for 2025 establishmentarians to be condemning authoritarian governance when they enthusiastically supported a slightly more genteel iron fist less than ten years ago (and if you count efforts in Europe to ban opposition parties, within the past few weeks!). If one really wants to stop national populist movements, one needs to acknowledge the unconscionable abuses from the governing class that has led to their rise.
As a liberal European one question we are asking ourselves is : What has happened to the Democrats? Where are they? We hear nothing from them here in Europe. It's as if they are still in shock and paralysed by the results of the 2024 election.
Friends have told me that if we watch certain "obscure" news channels, we will find them there. But for sure, they are nowhere to be seen, or heard, on the mainstream media.
I am not quite as certain that the world from before 2016 needs to be written off entirely. We didn't see 1989 coming; we didn't see the present moment coming either. But that underlines the main point here: that we all have choices to make and can work to preserve liberty. Thank you for publishing this.