Actually Zakaria has got it about right when the rhetoric is adjusted for the twists he imparts because he torques from the left.
It's not nonsense of all and I have been posting substantially identical pieces for more than a year now.
I’m quite certain that Zakaria will decree that “these policies are for the USA, but not for Singapore or Malaysia!”.
Noticed that this chap has been talking both ways for years since his “illiberal democracy” thesis years ago. He wanted to trash Slovakia under Mercer-era and Venezuela under Chavez and then praise Mahathir’s Malaysia, not realizing that they are of the same populist illiberal democracy types.