“As incompetent as it is authoritarian”

Those looking forward to America’s collapse in the face of an ascendant China are likely to be disappointed, writes Victor Davis Hanson at The Blade of Perseus. Examining a range of revealing metrics, trends and recent events, Hanson pronounces the U.S. the true “crouching tiger, hidden dragon”. America can be “sluggish” and “naïve,” admits Hanson, “but historically, its innately resilient free people, singular constitutional government, robust federalism, and free-market economy eventually wake up to the next rising threat.”

And rounding out our trio of good-news stories, Hélène de Lauzun reports in The European Conservative that, by one measure at least, Christian religiosity is flourishing. Several recent pilgrimages in France were packed with participants, including the Notre-Dame de Chrétienté journey from Paris to Chartres Cathedral, which drew more than 20,000. De Lauzun was especially struck at how the events moved complete strangers to come to one other’s aid to overcome hunger, thirst or exhaustion.