The Retreat of Western Liberalism

Edward Luce is a left-wing columnist. He is the associate editor of the Financial Times and author of The Retreat of Western Liberalism. And he wrote, I've covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career, have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous and contemptible than today's Republicans. Nothing close. Never.

Edward Luce is U.S. national editor and columnist at the Financial Times. His books include, and I have it right here, The Retreat of Western Liberalism from 2017.

And by the way, Ed was reading the blurb, scariest blurb on the cover of a book ever from Lauren Summers. Edward Luce provides a terrifying view of the challenges facing the West. We have to hope that his prophecies are self-denying, something that is more likely if his penetrating analysis gets the wide attention it richly deserves.

I speak with him about the new socialism, the power of political theater, and the assaults on liberal democracy in the U.S. and abroad.

My guest this week is Edward Luce. He's the U.S. national editor of the Financial Times and the author of three books, including most recently, The Retreat of Western Liberalism.

I tend to think that the British are in more trouble because Brexit is for keeps.

Trust, I think, is to democracy what fear is to autocracy. It's the really important glue that keeps our systems functioning.

That's not a snap one moment democracy's broken measure. It's an erosion. It's a sort of termites in the floorboards measure.

He's the U.S. national editor of the Financial Times and the author of the book The Retreat of Western Liberalism.

My guest this week is Edward Luce. He's the U.S. national editor of the Financial Times and the author of three books, including most recently, The Retreat of Western Liberalism.

I tend to think that the British are in more trouble because Brexit is for keeps. And four years later, it's going to be very, very difficult for us to change our minds. And therefore, we're going to have to live with it.

But the American convulsions happening in American society, as well as in American politics, are of extreme importance to the entire world.

I don't think democracy is broken. That's not a phrase I would use. I think we're each very Tolstoy and that we're uniquely unhappy in the way our political systems are functioning.