David Brooks in NYT on the struggle for freedom, remember that USA?
My guess is that if technology helps the protesters become 30 percent more effective, it helps the state become 70 percent more effective.
Many suspect that China will eventually crush these protests. They’ll round up leaders and force businesses to fire participants. Many suspect America will never step in to help.
DB(2)
The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners. The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity.
DB(3)
But there’s something stubborn about the Hong Kongers and deceptively powerful about their cause. Other protesters dreamed of freedom. These people have already lived it. It’s part of their identity. They will prove more ferocious in defense of liberty than the skeptics imagine. Along the way they might rekindle the sense of democratic mission that used to burn so forcefully in American hearts.
