In the third of an eight-part series, John Keane traces America’s shift from being defender-in-chief of democracy to MAGA’s denunciation of it.

In the years after 1945, at various points on our planet but especially within the white and wealthy democracies, America’s public reputation as a ‘liberal democracy’ rode high. The young rising empire had, since the 19th century, prided itself on its support for ‘democracy’, but after its Second World War victories it had a free hand in playing the role of defender-in-chief of democracy and stoic guardian of the entire ‘free world’.

American governments bragged about their capacity to promote new middle classes and functioning representative democracies. Local reactions were frequently sceptical or outright hostile – think of the famous gift from heaven, democracy (min shushugi) by parachute, image by the Japanese cartoonist Kato Etsuro, or the smouldering tensions between the Indian government and the United States. (An apocryphal but telling anecdote has John Foster Dulles demanding to know whether India was for or against the United States, to which prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru replied: ‘Yes’.)

In countries such as Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany and Australia, America stood for free and fair periodic elections, uncorrupted government, economic growth and shared prosperity, high quality roads, education, health care and other public services, and belief in the principle that citizens are entitled to choose their own government. In popular culture, there was the alluringly popular ‘democratic’ mixture of Hollywood, jazz, the all-shook-up Elvis Presley, Motown, Marilyn Monroe, Woody Allen, the rebel poetry of Bob Dylan, the melancholy magnetism of blue grass, gospel, soul and country music, the good-times fluff of the Beach Boys and the Monkeys.

Even when things were not going well, America seemed reformable, capable of doing better and for the time being worthy of global support. The spirit of American-backed progress lingered long. During the first Obama administration, with the help of intellectuals such as Stanford University’s prominent democracy scholar, Larry Diamond, the first warnings about ‘democratic recession’ were tempered with a call for the United States and its democratic allies to secure ‘the spirit of democracy’ and a ‘renewed democratic boom’ that was in favour of ‘good governance’ defined as ‘the rule of law, security, protection of individual rights and shared economic prosperity’.

Talk of a new ‘democratic boom’ has stopped. The times they are now changing for America, and not for the better. We are yet to see how much damage the belligerent Trump administration does to America’s global reputation in the coming years. The world is already awash with bad news about the United States: its double standards, big-money politics, gun violence, loud-mouthed leadership, second-rate infrastructure and general social decadence. On the popular culture front, there’s of course Superbowl rap king Kendrick Lamar and the private-jet, cash-grabbing, fan-based ‘my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of Congressman’ pop star businesswoman Taylor Swift. And it’s true that in some democratic countries, Israel, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines included, a majority of citizens still say they hold a ‘favourable opinion’ of the United States.

That’s also true in India, where roughly two-thirds of people praise what they call American ingenuity, hard work, higher education and respect for India (all the while simultaneously expressing positive views of Russia and hostility to China). Elsewhere, however, research shows that in countries once supportive of the United States its reputation is slipping, as in Poland, where (by early 2026) a majority of citizens no longer consider America a reliable ally, or, as throughout Africa, where approval of China now generally outranks support for the United States. Then there are countries including China, Turkey, Tunisia, Greece, Malaysia, Australia and France, where public opinions about the United States are split, or potentially hostile. The US/Israel war on Iran will surely strengthen the research finding that shows that in countries such as Iran, Egypt, Indonesia and Afghanistan and, more generally, in the wider Arab and Muslim regions, millions of people say they loathe American imperial power and its ways of life. They think of it as a freak show. Mere mention of the United States and its ‘democracy’ tempts people to curse and spit.

Viewed historically, through the prism of empire and democracy, these research findings are significant because they suggest that in well-established democracies the light of democracy and freedom on America’s hill is fast fading and not easily renewable. It’s all very well for intellectuals to call for more ‘patriotism’ and for setting ‘a good example of what America means for the generations to come’ by demonising Russia and demanding citizens serve their ‘own country’ (Timothy Snyder). The reality on the home front, whatever they say, is that America’s current crop of political leaders and diplomats evidently care little or nothing for democracy. Their silence about ‘liberal democracy’ is spooky. Some MAGA enthusiasts welcome its abandonment. They speak openly of democracy’s obsolescence. Their alternative mantra is fired straight from the hip: in the name of its fabled ‘people’, America will remake the world led by a government that snubs constitutional and civil society restraints on its power.

Curtis Yarvin, a leading MAGA ideologue and ‘dark enlightenment’ and ‘techno-feudalism’ champion, says it bluntly: ‘The leader must use the mass movement to win the democracy game, then demand and take absolute power.’ Multi-billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, Peter Thiel, openly denounces democracy as a threat to ‘freedom’ and insists that the coming of the universal franchise, including women’s suffrage, has made it difficult for ‘capitalism’ to function because democracy has empowered an ‘unthinking demos’ of idiots easily fooled and captured by populist politicians demanding higher taxation and corporate regulation that have the effect of choking innovative techno-experiments with cryptocurrency, AI-powered agriculture, seasteading (floating autonomous cities), anti-aging remedies, fungus-based pet food and plans to resurrect woolly mammoths. Other tough-minded, hardcore MAGA supporters dream of weakening or outright abolishing power-sharing democracy. They say democracy is no longer the only game in town because brute power and winning are all that matter. Despotism is their thing. Constitutional niceties make no sense. Hero worship and demagoguery matter. (For more see: Demagogues and Despots: Democracies on the brink)

Its rules are plain. Flood the zone. Strengthen executive power. Cross red lines. Defy existing laws and legal precedents. Bewilder citizens by issuing non-stop executive orders. Abolish guardrails and watchdogs. Arbitrarily dismiss inspectors general, judges and other guardians of public integrity. Reduce the power of legislatures to appropriate tax money and determine its spending. Trample on workers’ rights. End birthright citizenship. Freeze research, educational, social support and foreign aid programs. Silence dissenters. Expect unquestioning loyalty from civil servants. Denounce journalists and experts who expose misconduct, corruption, and malfeasance as ‘far left’ purveyors of fake news and partisans of the ‘deep state’.

This article was drawn from notes prepared for public lectures in Nanjing and Oxford, May-June 2026

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.