A ritzy village nestled in the Swiss Alps, Davos still elicits images of William Tell, Heidi and Edward Whymper scaling the Matterhorn. It's also synonymous with secret fraternities of wealth and status intent on shaping us to their specifications. The annual World Economic Forum is an international version of plutocratic cabals that met in America at Breton Woods and Jekyll Island last century. In its 48th year, it's a haven for global elites. By lunch, they learn how 4 out of 5 dollars generated in 2017 went to them. By dinner, they discuss the disparity in breakout sessions, never acknowledging its principle cause ─ globalization.

Last week Donald Trump became the first U.S. President since Bill Clinton to attend this gathering of the super rich. Before courteous crowds of corporate and political titans, he made his pitch like a Fuller brush salesman. First, he accused China of intellectual property theft then declared America "open for business," as if transactional politics were end-alls. But even tycoons see more pressing issues in the world than money. A Scandinavian CEO pointed to elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands as death knells to conservative populism in Europe. So, given his antagonism to the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal, Trump became Scarlet O’Hara imploring Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. The Davos crowd didn't give a damn.

In 1945, having used atomic weapons and avoided the rubble of both world wars, the U.S. became militarily and economically powerful. It used that clout to form multilateral alliances, build hundreds of military bases abroad, peddle influence and prop-up tyrants as "cops on the beat." Capital stability was the new world order and America its hub. Still, despite shortcomings at home, dangerous meddling abroad and Cold War brinksmanship fledgling democracies looked to us for guidance. We remain the most heavily armed and networked nation on the planet, but less and less its reference point. The global economy has hollowed our middle class, destroyed ecosystems and worsened climate change. But we can't cede leadership over it. China is taking center stage, and Europeans are moving on. The world is evolving so quickly it's willing to seek leaders elsewhere.

President Trump is a sideshow, an American curiosity the way Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley symbolized the Old West when they toured overseas. His cries of "fake news" nonetheless inspired crackdowns on journalists in Turkey, the Philippines and Venezuela, and painting the world adversarial has us fleeing our former creation like Victor Frankenstein. Worse yet, when Trump talks business while other countries discuss pandemics, inclusive growth, rising seas and plights of refugees we, as a people, appear void of empathy and compassion, the differences between good and evil.

Scott Deshefy is two-time Green Party congressional candidate.