To these stark claims, let me add two supplementary comments that qualify the scale and nature of the shift that I’m describing.
First: The end of the post-1989 era doesn’t mean the end of liberalism.
Well, maybe.
But before going all the way to that conclusion, consider first how many people inside the Trump-Vance coalition still consider themselves partisans of liberal values — defenders of free speech and other liberties they deem most threatened by the left, not the right.
And then consider the recent argument from Gray’s fellow critic of liberal overreach, Aris Roussinos, pointing out that the version of the liberal order that bestrode the world after 1989 was quite different from the post-World War II liberal order that preceded it — more utopian in its ambition, more culturally comprehensive in its claims, more imperious and imperial and hubristic and therefore, yes, foredoomed.
Persons:
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin’s, John Gray, Trump, JD Vance
Organizations:
Statesman, Trump, Vance, Aris Roussinos
Locations:
Ukraine, British, Europe, United States, overreach