"dogwhistle for a particular sort of nationalist authoritarianism" No such dogwhistle signal was intended here, at all. "Western values" was meant as shorthand

"dogwhistle for a particular sort of nationalist authoritarianism" No such dogwhistle signal was intended here, at all. "Western values" was meant as shorthand for democracy and democratic ideals. Related tangent: it bothers me that the far right attempts to conflate patriotism with nationalism.