New Delhi, July 20 -- There is a difference between power and influence. Confusing the two lies at the heart of the gamble of several American billionaires who are covertly or overtly backing Donald Trump's war against Western values. Trump's America is somewhat familiar to people outside the West.

For what he has changed about his nation is that he has brought third-world practicality to an unnatural but exquisite ideal-that no one is above the law, not even if most of the nation endorses one man to be above it.

An odd thing about democracy is that its best parts are meant to counter the will of the people in case the collective will turns out to be morally corrupt. This is the role of institutions like the judiciary.

Democracy is war...