The way he leaves may well determine whether a new strongman leader emerges who can flip Russia fully into fascism, or whether the people "- particularly the Russian generation coming up now that's wired into the world "- will again try Gorbachev's idea of democracy.
The fathers of neoliberalism, Mises, Hayek, and Friedman, have all passed on to that great marketplace in the sky; their legacy is a weakened and oligarchic America, an empowered China (which rejected neoliberalism and instead adopted Alexander Hamilton's "American Plan"), and a badly destabilized Russia that could trigger World War III.
And now, there's a reckoning coming.
The next few years, amidst worldwide crises of climate change and economic instability, will determine the future course of governance worldwide. And the failures of neoliberalism are hitting both Russia and the United States particularly hard.
It's an extraordinary time to be alive, and a vital time to become an activist on behalf of democracy, wherever you may live.
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