The fear of a xenophobic populist in the White House has liberals everywhere looking to Berlin for moral guidance. They tout Angela Merkel as the new torchbearer for human rights. They call her the next leader of the free world. Or as the New York Times put it in a headline shortly after the vote: “Donald Trump’s Election Leaves Angela Merkel as the Liberal West’s Last Defender.” [...]
What a reversal of roles. For decades, German governments only rarely challenged American power. The budding West German democracy after 1945 depended on the U.S. for economic aid and military protection. The Germans also got a lot of advice on how to build democratic institutions. Some people — on the far Left and Right, mostly — resented the junior-partner role that came with the whole setup. But the political establishment, by and large, has embraced it until now. [...]
If Merkel is going to strike fear into the hearts of autocrats and other freedom haters, she’ll have to rely on the power of her rhetoric. And, in this arena in particular, she is no Barack Obama. Her pragmatic and down-to-earth approach to governing served her well in her initial years as German chancellor. But she is first and foremost a technocrat; she lacks the kind of charisma that leading a global movement against right-wing populism would now require.
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