Western democracy has weathered severe tests in the past, from fascism to Bolshevism.

The United States, though often late to the game, was generally on the side of open markets, self-determination and the rule of law.

But Donald Trump’s extraordinary statement on January 7th — that he could not rule out the use of force to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal for national security reasons; and that he would use “economic force” to subdue Canada — would put him in the same camp as the autocrats who run Russia and China; advocates of the idea that might is right.