Andrew, I admire much of your writing and analysis, but in this statement, I think you are dead wrong - not to mention that you make it with scant evidence. The main difference is Washington changes it’s leaders when the will of the people voted them out. Oh sure, far from a perfect system. But dictators-for-life like Xi and Putin create a whole different order of political ills.

And yes, the US has a checkered record in human rights abuses - but Russia and China do not recognize human rights and do not care about the “rights” of their citizens at all. To these rulers, their subjects “belong” to the state.

So, to throw these three powers all into one basket is to me, just not sound thinking.