Trump's win fuels fears for democracy

Under the American system, the party faithful in states vote for the person they want to stand as the presidential candidate. Mr Trump's resounding victory in Iowa puts him streets ahead of the rest. He's not there yet but nobody would bet against him.

And the latest polls put him neck-and-neck with Joe Biden, the President.

January polls are notoriously unreliable but Mr Trump is on a roll - despite multiple charges of impropriety and illegality against him.

This is a man who still denies having lost the last election. He is without doubt a serious, perhaps fatal, threat to the democracy of the United States of America, a country which has been a beacon of democracy throughout the world.

The signs from elsewhere are ominous, too.

We reported on Tuesday about a quiet Dutch village where three out of four voters opted for a virulently anti-migrant, anti-Muslim party.

Populist "strong man leaders" in Europe seem unassailable, from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) is riding high. In November, Argentina elected the right-wing populist Javier Milei.

Populist leaders paint a picture of elites acting against the interests of the people. Only they, in their strength, can act for the people.

It is a false view. It is a con.

This simplistic view seems to offer easy solutions to complex problems. Autocratic leaders present themselves as the sole answer. In doing so, they justify the accrual of more power to themselves. They perform well in front of cameras and selected crowds. They rise by democratic means and then weaken the democracy that took them to power.

We desperately hope that they do not succeed.

There is a little hope in this dark situation.

Voters may be starting to see through the false promises of these chancers who offer easy routes out of complex situations - but routes which actually lead nowhere but to less power for ordinary people and more power for themselves.

In Britain, charismatic Boris Johnson is a busted flush.

In Poland last month, a democratic party beat the populist Law and Justice party to take power. Wielding what he called "an iron broom", the new Prime Minister Donald Tusk has started undoing some of the undemocratic changes of his predecessor.

Under the previous government, the country's public television station had been packed with its highly-political right-wing executives. Mr Tusk dismissed them. He is acting against corrupt placemen.

Democracy may seem tedious in a world which seeks easy answers - but it has performed well.

The trouble with "strong men" is that they fail. They do not take advice. They surround themselves with sycophants who only deliver what the master wants to hear.

Democracy, remember, took us to victory over the despots of Germany and Japan and then the Soviet Union.

This year is a big year for democracy. More than half the world's population, including in India and Indonesia, go to the polls. We hope that they reject the anti-democratic candidates - particularly in the United States.

We should shout more loudly for that old idea of democracy where we, the people, choose who governs us.