ROGER KIMBALL: J.D. Vance’s Munich Wake-Up Call: Democracy, Censorship, and the Will of the People.
Everyone agrees that Vice President J. D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference on Friday was remarkable.
I do not mean that everyone liked it.
For example, Boris Pistorius, the German Defense Minister, sniffed—or perhaps “smoldered” would be a more accurate term—that Vance’s remarks were “not acceptable.”
And then there is Bill Kristol, a sort of Greta Thunberg of the rancid former right, who thundered that Vance’s speech was “a humiliation for the U.S. and a confirmation that this administration isn’t on the side of the democracies.”
“The democracies.” What do you suppose Kristol means by that?
While you ponder that question, note that other people thought rather well of Vance’s speech. I thought it was excellent myself, but forget about my opinion. Jonathan Turley said that Vance’s speech was “perhaps the greatest single declaration uttered since ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’” It was, Turley wrote elsewhere, “truly Churchillian—no less than the famous Iron Curtain speech in which Churchill dared the West to confront the existential dangers of communism.”
How can we explain the discrepancy: the outraged Pistorius/Kristol reaction and what I will call the Kimball/Turley reaction (though many people besides me applauded Vance’s speech)?
I think it comes down to how one understands that overdetermined, familiar yet often only half-understood word “democracy.”
Kristol said that Vance’s speech showed that the Trump administration was not “on the side of the democracies.”
What do you think of that claim?
I think poorly of it because I believe that a democracy is a political arrangement in which the people are sovereign.
I suspect that Kristol and European bureaucrats of all descriptions believe that it is a form of government in which only the right people, i.e, themselves, are sovereign.
QED: Glad to See He’s Toned Down the Rhetoric: John Harwood’s Latest Hysterical Trump Tantrum is EPIC.
For every rational person raising an eyebrow at this nonsense, there are like 3 leftwing lunatics who are cheering it on. You can’t be too confident.
Another day, or really, another hour, another insane rant from a once respected journalist. All because Trump broke them. Maybe he was always this way.
Either way, it is very entertaining.
Please don’t stop, Johnny!
Don’t worry, he won’t. Flashbacks:
● Tool de Force: CNN’s John Harwood Defends Biden, Insists Inflation Pain Is a GOP ‘Charade.’
● CNBC Hack John Harwood Is Really, Really Upset That Al-Baghdadi Was Killed.
● NYT/CNBC’S John Harwood Advises Hillary Campaign, Gloats About Provoking Trump At Debate.
● CNBC’s John Harwood Has No Business Moderating A GOP Presidential Debate.
● CNBC Alters Transcript of John Harwood Question About Hillary’s Email.
● “Everyone in the [CNBC] newsroom knows [John Harwood is] extremely far left.”
● CNN’s John Harwood used to think that higher inflation was a bad thing (guess what changed).
Exit quotes:
