Justin Trudeau was born on Christmas Day 1971 and last week was sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister. And for much of the international left he is something of a political messiah — signing up to nearly every fashionable progressive cause.
He wants higher taxes, more environmental regulations and the legalization of cannabis. Not only does he support the legalization of cannabis but has smoked it himself. And not just at university but while a legislator. And he inhaled.
The Internet is full of fun facts about Trudeau. He stripteased for a charity function. He is a lefty with a left hook — having boxed a conservative senator on TV and won. His dad was also Canadian PM. His mom dated Jack Nicholson and Ted Kennedy.
But for me, the most interesting thing about Trudeau is how he answered a question a couple of years ago. Asked to name the nation he most admired, his answer was “China.” And his explanation? “Their basic dictatorship,” he explained, “is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime.”
After having stormed from third place in the opinion polls to win a majority, Trudeau’s faith in democracy may have been restored but the fact that one of the western world’s most senior politicians can express such respect for dictatorship is startling — and he’s far from alone.
Travel, for example, to the post-communist nations of eastern Europe and you’ll find faith in liberal democracy is not what it was.
I was in Budapest two weeks ago meeting representatives of Viktor Orbán’s administration. Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister and a man with a completely different kind of politics to Trudeau’s, has reached similar conclusions about the western model.
A self-styled “illiberal,” he has declared that “the most popular topic in thinking today is trying to understand how systems that are not western, not liberal, not liberal democracies and perhaps not even democracies, can nevertheless make their nations successful.”
“The stars,” he continued, “of the international analysts today are Singapore, China, India, Russia and Turkey.”
Some of these “stars” are not shining so brightly these days, but the idea that the world no longer revolves around America or, more pertinently, the American way is growing.
The Orbánites described America in disdainful terms. As I stood next to a statue of Ronald Reagan near the Hungarian parliament one of the PM’s aides described him as America’s last good president.
I was reminded that America’s triumph over the Soviet Union and the liberation of Kuwait were nearly three decades ago. Since then there has been the global financial crash (undermining America’s economic leadership); the failure in Iraq, Syria and Ukraine (undermining America’s geostrategic leadership); and the gridlock on Capitol Hill (undermining America’s political model).
And now, the aide shrieked, they’re thinking of electing Donald Trump. Pointing towards the US embassy, he continued: “And all America’s ambassador wants to talk to us about is whether or not a senior member of our government will take part in a gay pride march in Budapest.”
America is a joke, he said.
The land of the American dream isn’t feeling very dreamy any more.
I don’t think America is a joke. Far from it. It’s a country still at the cutting edge of technology. The brightest and best of the world still want to emigrate there. Its universities dominate world league tables.
If I’m ever held hostage in an ungodly corner of the world and I can’t be rescued by the British armed forces (there are a few left), I’d want to be rescued by an American soldier. But there is little doubt that it is not just Trudeau and Orbán who are wondering about the American model.
In a survey that I commissioned for the Legatum Institute think tank, YouGov established that 50% of people in India think the next generation will be richer, safer and healthier than the last. The percentage of optimists drops to 42% in Thailand, 39% in Indonesia, 29% in Brazil, 19% in the UK, 15% in Germany and — bottom of the table — 14% in the United States.
The land of the American dream isn’t feeling very dreamy any more.
Restoring that dream is not just about restoring American economic competitiveness. It’s also about restoring the place of America and its freedom-loving allies in the world.
If the Anglo-Saxon, European and Japanese brands of capitalism continue to exhibit relative decline at the expense, for example, of the Chinese form of state capitalism, it won’t just be prosperity that will suffer.
The extension of democracy, the rule of law and human rights depends upon the countries that most embody those principles being strong enough to inspire emulation from other still developing and emerging countries.
Orbán, who kills pigs with his hands and turns them into sausages, is now turning away from America. Unafraid of dirty work he has made deals with Russia, China and Saudi Arabia to further Hungary’s interests.
America may be a part of the future but it’s no longer seen as key to the future in many nations’ eyes. It needs new leadership. A new president who can make it worthy of emulation again. Who can persuade the two-thirds of Americans who think that their country is on the wrong track that it can be turned around.
Over the next year, with presidential elections in sight, I’ll be reporting from America. Looking for that transformational leader. I travel in hope rather than in expectation.
From The Times of London