There is a clear crisis of leadership in the West. When we look around our nation (the USA) and our world (the only one we have), we can easily determine who leads the right-wing and authoritarian movements. Liberal leadership is harder to find.

What nation leads the Free World? Up until a month ago, the answer would have been the United States. We had the power and prestige. We had earned our place by protecting the “Free World,” with both military and moral authority.

Since Trump’s election, we have not drifted but raced from our support of democratic institutions and nations. In the third week of February, we went all the way and changed sides. We switched from supporting Ukraine to now supporting Putin and Russian expansionism. With our refusal to sign on to the UN resolution marking the sad anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and then offering our own intentionally vague and morally offensive resolution just decrying the violence, we ceded our position as leader of the Free World. But to whom?

To make a bad situation worse, we followed this up by ambushing Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in public. An already tense meeting was blown up by Vice President Vance launching a personal attack on our INVITED guest and then going on to insult the Ukrainian people. He demanded that our guest, a democratically elected president, grovel and pull his forelock in humble appreciation of our coercive attempt to get him to pay back (a gift) by exchanging the mineral wealth of his nation for our goodwill. We offered no more than that—no security agreement of any kind. “Just give it to us to show your appreciation,” they seemed to say. When he dared defend his honor and his country and refused to roll over, Trump threw him out of the White House. “Threw him out,” was Trump’s own characterization.

We picked a truly terrible time to withdraw into a Neo-Fortress America. Our abandonment of our allies, our history and our legacy leaves the Free World without a leader. We have neither a person nor a nation to champion the interests of Western Liberal Democracy.

Germany, with arguably the strongest economy, is going through a crisis of leadership and a re-evaluation of just who they are and will be. The traditionally strong Social Democrats are in retreat, having been destroyed by Merkel’s generous but ruinous acceptance of a million Muslim immigrants. The anti-immigrant right and far right are growing. Prime Minister Olaf Scholz is going out of office. Friedrich Merz is likely to succeed him but without clear moral authority. The far-right Alternative für Deutschland, which garnered 20% of the vote, is frozen out of the government. But what would happen to Germany Democracy if they one day win? Germany is weak, vulnerable, and confused.

Nor can we look to the UK. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is both new and not particularly strong, heading a shaky coalition. Though he replaced a disgraced Conservative party, his election was not so much an endorsement of a more liberal approach but a visceral rejection of the Conservatives. He is not in position to lead, and, of course, neither is the UK after withdrawing from the European Union.

Do we look to France and Emmanuel Macron? As appealing and popular as he is abroad, he is just as unpopular at home. France too is beset with immigration problems and dealing (or avoiding dealing) with it unassimilated Muslim population—a population not so much of new immigrants as unabsorbed first, second and even third generation Arabs. They neither see themselves nor are they seen by most French as being “genuinely French.”

We can’t look to Giorgia Meloni in Italy, or, God helps us, Viktor Orban in Hungary as moral leadership. The Scandinavian countries, as attractive as they appear at first blush, are also struggling with immigration, budgets and responding to Russian aggression. What nation is politically, morally and economically ready to lead? I don’t know, and this is deeply troubling.

It’s troubling here at home that we don’t know who leads the Democrats. Not Joe Biden. Not Kamala Harris. Not Hakeem Jeffries. Not Chuck Schumer. Not Gavin Newson. Not Hillary nor Bill Clinton. Not yet one of the rising stars such as Wes Moore, Raphael Warnock, Pete Buttigieg, AOC nor Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. They are a talented bunch but one awaiting a commanding leader to emerge.

Our nation and the world quake in anticipation of leadership emerging, real leadership with vision, passion and a moral compass. Where is our Gandhi or his opponent Winston Churchill? Where is today’s Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela? Hell, where is our Volodymyr Zelenskyy?

During the Holocaust, Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto on Yom Kippur sang, “I believe in the coming of the Messiah, and though he tarry, still, I believe.” Well, I believe, if not in a messiah, a leader, a morally persuasive leader, will emerge out of the chaos, and though this leader tarry, still, deep in my heart, I do believe.