The news I read these days seem to favor the perspective of disappointment. I hardly pay attention to the side that champions triumph, as it is too painful and a consequence of the most profound animosity in political discourse that I can recall. My newsfeed is replete with sorrow and apprehension. During Zoom meetings where we avoid discussing “outside issues,” I have witnessed an unprecedented outburst of this sentiment, including friends from the United States who burst into tears, filled with shame for the collective will of the majority of voters.

Beyond the United States, where I have friends and where I resided for five years, this sentiment is pervasive, encompassing, of course, countries within the European Union and Europe as a whole.

Friends and family members share news and comments on private channels. For instance, my father shared this comment by Markus Bernath in the Switzerland-based NZZ, or “Neue Zuericher Zeitung,” in the family channel. With a few lines, this comment reflects the enduring human desire for a strong leader. Notably, Markus Bernath concludes a “Zeitenwende,” a paradigm shift, indicating a departure from liberal democracy towards illiberal autocracy.

Inasmuch as I follow the U.S. news, I am closely following on developments within the European Union, in my country of origin Germany, in countries where I engage workwise, such as in the Ukraine and Moldova, or the collection of six jurisdictions forming what is known as the Western Balkans. If I want to name them politically correct, I am referring to Albania, Bosnia&Hercegovina, Kosovo [under UNSCR 1244], Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.

In all these countries, the reactions are reflecting on the extent to which they are governed by aspiring democracies or are on a path towards illiberal autocracy. For instance, the reactions of the ruling class in Hungary and Serbia differ from those in Albania, Romania, or Moldova. Ukraine, which is currently suffering from a war of aggression by the Russian Federation, is a special case that relates to all the anxiety stemming from the fearful question of whether the second Trump Administration is prepared to avoid making the same rookie mistakes in demolishing the rule of law towards a rule of transactional self-serving thinking. This would leave these countries vulnerable to coldness, current and future aggression and war, or dependence on a fragile strength from the European Union and NATO.

Reflecting on the strong emotions from everyday citizens through those of political operatives towards the common reflections within these societies, these days carry an overarching sense of that the heydays of liberal democracy are gone. And in another very special case, my country Germany with our history of consequences of a dictatorship and fascism leading to the unimaginable suffering through Holocaust and genocide against minorities, we all feel the triumph of the fascist faces of right-wing extremism. Germany’s current government is in a crisis, and be it snap elections after a vote of confidence gone south, or be it the regular elections in fall 2025, we fear the triumphant march of the AfD to power.

I perceive the resignation and the collective anger that is evident in the shame experienced by some of my American friends. Simultaneously, there are outbursts of anger from friends in Europe directed at the entire United States, attributing the consequences of this election solely to its actions. At present, everything appears to be subject to the whims of powerful and profoundly irrational emotions.

I would hope that we get through this very soon. There is a difference between being prepared for worst-case-scenarios and being driven by negative anticipation of events. Those who say “I told you so”, or, “Democracy is gone”, I beg to not fall into the trap being set up for us: The trap of being held hostage by self-fulfilling negative thinking.

We should not allow ourselves to engage in resignation.

Amongst many early assessments of why this all happened there is one which tells us that voters were driven by the perception that the ruling system did not serve people well, that life did not get better, rather worse.

I also note reasonable assessments about how the ruling democratic structures were detached from what people think, feel, and want to have.

In that way, the crisis of democracy is a crisis of detachment from people in their everyday lives. And that I can confirm in my personal experience, when I listen to people in their daily conversations.

So, the crisis of democracy can be looked at as something stemming from the threats by autocrats and wannabe autocrats. But if we are walking on our own side of the street, we can also look at this crisis as a failure of democracy because of detachment of the political and buerocratic class from everyday life of people. That I confirm from every talk where I listen to grievances.

And secondly and lastly, there is the question as to which extent we have one measurement stick, or several measurement sticks which we apply for convenience. The rupture which went through societies when it comes to our position in the conflict between Israel and Palestine (yes, I would hope for a two State solution), it influenced the elections in the U.S., and it tore society apart in Germany, and went straight through my own family. Democracy has a crisis rooting in credibility of our own values.

Now, for a second, let me walk not only in the shoes of Ukrainian friends, Moldovan friends, Western Balkan friends, Israeli and Palestinian friends, but in the shoes of African friends: How could we possibly believe that people in Sudan, in the Darfur region, witnessing the largest crisis and famine since more than twenty years, or anywhere else, would lend trust into us from “The West” if we continue to apply double standards? And why, do you think, Russia has an easy entry point into Mali, the Central African Republic, or elsewhere?

There is no time for resignation. It makes us complicit. There is time for deep soul searching and a revival of a discussion about values. There is time for being prepared to take risks, and there is a time now for standing up for those values which we fear to be torn down.

In this, it does not matter where we live. It is affecting all of us.