We Tore Down the Iron Curtain For This?

People Died To Give Romanians Democracy. We Keep Mucking It Up.

The story here starts 22 years ago. December, almost Christmas, 1989. I was 5 years old, but my age did not prevent me from hearing death’s roar—the death of democratic martyrs followed in short order by the death of the tyrant. It was death promising freedom after a half century of national captivity, dependence, imprisonment, and servitude. In the West, the crumbling of the Iron Curtain was talked about as the “end of history.” In Romania, it felt like the start.

But, for all the initial euphoria, the ensuing post-Communist decades, …