Extract
There was a time not so long ago when the West, particularly the US and UK, were regarded as the gold standard in good governance. They would almost instinctively and willy-nilly dole out sage advice on how the rest of humanity should run its affairs. Not any more. The West seems to have almost gone bonkers, while the Kremlin is smiling.
The US and the UK, especially when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were bestriding the globe, were the linchpin of what the West stood for — a democratic form of government, free press, human rights, free markets et cetera. Together they stared down the Soviet Union until it crumbled.