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From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to free expression from the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal.

I'm Jerry Baker, editor at large of the journal.

If you're not already a subscriber to Free Expression, please do sign up at Apple, Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you do, you're listening.

This week, the war in Ukraine

and the future of liberal democracy, the West and political populism. Is the Western model of

liberal democracy under siege from a new authoritarian virus sweeping America and Europe?

Or has that liberal model simply outlived its usefulness, having weakened the

character of Western civilization and undermined the values that have made it great?

The rise of political figures like Donald Trump in the US and the leaders of conservative

populist parties in Europe is a direct challenge to the established political order that has

ruled the West since the end of the Second

World War. For many voters, the entrenched power of elite, cultural, economic and political

institutions has worked directly in the last few decades against the values and interests of the people

on issues like immigration and national identity, global economic integration, radical, social

change and issues like sex and

...