Michael Goodwin: The world has now seen the Trump Effect on full display
A glance across America and Europe leads to an unmistakable conclusion: Revolution is in the air. The failures of democracies are sparking internal upheavals.Thankfully, spasms of violence and bloodshed are few, but a toxic brew of overbearing governments, shrinking freedoms and undeniable decline is producing demands for big changes. A common thread from California to Great Britain, France and Germany is that liberal underpinnings have morphed into sloppy socialism, unchecked immigration, cultural clashes and restraints on critical speech. Collectively, the conservative blowback reveals that the time allotted for an indulgent detour has expired and a new consensus is taking shape, whether entrenched leftists like it or not. You can thank Donald Trump and the 77 million Americans who elected him for this development. Or blame them if you are on the losing side of this remarkablemoment. Either way, Trump is, with apologies to Reggie Jackson, the straw that stirs the drink. His landslide election was a clear vindication of his first term, but it is turning out to be far more consequential than he could have imagined. To the millions of people around the world who are clamoring for a Trump of their own, he personifies the demand for a government that serves its citizens and not the other way around. When even Los Angeles’ uber-Democrats demand the heads of their mayor and governor for mismanaging water resources during the devastating wildfires, you know the hunger for change has reached new levels. In the early days after his election, Trump said he got more than 200 congratulatory phone calls from business leaders and politicians from around the world. Not bad for the candidate whose rabid, dishonest opponents declared him the new Hitler and a threat to democracy. A defining image of the time since are the pilgrimages to see him at Mar-a-Lago, with many wealthy wise men and women bearing gifts.
These included promises of enormous investments from Japa...