March 16, 2022 6:30 am

Wartime’s Macabre Predictions of a Populist Defeat

It’s a weird, premature, and slightly macabre reaction, from thinkers who should know better.

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, and Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Jansa in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 15, 2022.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters

It’s been three weeks since Russia invaded. Just three weeks.

Already, fed by what they are glimpsing on Twitter and hearing in private chat rooms, liberal-minded commentators are celebrating the renewal and forthcoming triumph of all their ideas over all their enemies globally. Moral clarity is back! Populism and nationalism are totally finished!