It is symbolic and poignant that the election of Donald Trump was confirmed on the morning of November 9, 27 years to the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall. That was a moment of triumph for US leadership — and ushered in a period of optimism and expansion for liberal and democratic ideas around the world. That era has been definitively ended by Mr Trump’s victory.
The electoral triumph of a race-baiting demagogue represents a profound blow to the prestige of US democracy — and thus to the cause of democracy around the world, which America has championed, on and off, since 1945.
The most eloquent and moving statement of that American commitment was made by John F Kennedy in 1961 — “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”