Call it the Olympic torch that ignited more international acrimony than the promotion of ideals that its charter aims to represent. China’s decision to tap a member of its Uygur community to light the torch apparently played well domestically, but only fanned derision among activists overseas after the 20-year-old cross-country skier, Dinigeer Yilamujiang, disappeared from the spotlight faster than a WeChat post about Peng Shuai’s well-being. The torch relay also raised hackles in India owing to the inclusion of a Chinese military commander involved in deadly clashes with Indian border forces in 2020. With a much larger economy, better technology and a more modern military presence, Beijing felt more emboldened to produce the Games its own way than it did 14 years ago. But was it worth giving China’s critics more talking points just to create feel-good moments for the domestic audience? The most obvious answer is that Beijing no longer cares what the West thinks. With public perception of China at historic lows in many Western countries, nothing in a show of Chinese strength and unity will play well to those who see danger in both. On top of this calculation is the understanding that concern about human rights is mostly a cover, as Senator Ted Cruz showed when he slammed the door in the faces of Hong Kong activists after encouraging them to march in the city with American flags. The new blood sport of American political discourse, where evisceration has replaced reason as the only way to own the podium, has surely made Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin more confident in their efforts to prevail against the democratic West. The latest bits of evidence are everywhere. A school board in Tennessee, for example, recently banned a graphic novel about the Holocaust – Maus – because of objections over explicit language and one drawing of a naked dead mouse. As if Pulitzer Prize-winning literature was the only place for teenagers to turn for salty language and nudity. Senator Rand Paul provided the latest example of the Republican Party’s transition from a bloc that stood for law and order to one that sees political violence and societal disruption as its only path forward. He expressed his hope in an interview this weekend that the protests by truckers and others against Covid-19 mandates in Canada, which promise to add to supply chain disruptions, would spill over into American cities. Some Republicans are speaking out against the violence of January 6, 2021, now that more evidence of former president Donald Trump’s intent is coming to light , but Paul, Cruz and others are proving that many in the party see brute force – not human rights and democracy – as the way forward for America. This orientation was formally articulated in Trump’s first speech to the UN general assembly five years ago, and will outlive his usefulness as its promoter. The speech had multiple references to the idea that the world should consist of “strong sovereign states”, only one reference to human rights (tellingly, in the context of a knock against the UN Human Rights Council), and the only mentions of democracy are in the form of attacks against Iran and Venezuela. There was one reference to the security of Ukraine, but five years on, Trump allies like Senator Josh Hawley – who egged on the January 6 insurrection with a fist pump – are suggesting that America should side with Putin against Ukraine. No one really understood at the time that it was a manifesto for what this movement represents, shot through with the rhetoric of Steve Bannon and other brains behind Trump, who is himself incapable of expressing a coherent thought that isn’t an insult. Trump himself may not survive politically as the evidence against him in multiple lawsuits and investigations mounts. But the party that has adopted his mantle will, as comments by Rand, Hawley and other Republicans have made clear. Former national security adviser John Bolton, in his book The Room Where it Happened , quotes Trump saying that Beijing was right to put Uygurs in internment camps. Given all we know about Trump’s appreciation for the world’s authoritarian leaders, how can we doubt this account? Beijing has been watching Trump and his movement closely enough to take Bolton at his word, and is betting that it will grow enough to blunt criticism from Washington about how China treats Uygurs. Robert Delaney is the Post’s North America bureau chief