Below is my column in the Hill on the historic defense of free speech by Vice President J.D. Vance in Munich last week. Where John F. Kennedy went to Berlin to declare “Ich bin ein Berliner,” Vance went in Munich to declare a type of “Ich bin ein Amerikanisch.” He spoke of free speech as an American with a power and clarity that is unrivaled in modern times. As expected, he is being attacked by Europeans and many in this country on the left. However, his speech was a tour de force of our core values.
Here is the column:
In “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” J.D. Vance wrote, “I don’t believe in transformative moments, as transformation is harder than a moment.”
Despite that profound point, on Feb. 14, Vance found that transformative moment.
Speaking to European leaders at the Munich Security Conference, he shocked his audience by confronting them over their attacks on free speech in the West.
For the free speech community, it was truly Churchillian — no less than the famous Iron Curtain speech in which Churchill dared the West to confront the existential dangers of communism.
Roughly 80 years after Churchill’s speech, Vance called our allies to account not for the growing threat from countries like Russia or China, but from themselves. To a clearly shocked audience, Vance declared that he was not worried about “external actors” but “the threat from within the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”
Vance then pulled back the curtain on the censorship and anti-free-speech policies of the European Union and close allies ranging from the United Kingdom to Sweden. He also chastised one of the most vehemently anti-free speech figures in Europe, Thierry Breton, who led the EU efforts to control speech with draconian measures under the infamous Digital Services Act.
Vance called out the hypocrisy of these nations asking for greater and greater military assistance “in the name of our shared democratic values” even as they eviscerate free speech, the very right that once defined Western Civilization.
The point was crushing.
Before we further commit to the defense of Europe, he argued, we should agree on what we are defending. These European nations are erasing the very distinctions between us and our adversaries.
In my recent book, I discussed many of the examples cited by the vice president. One of the most telling came from Canada last year, when the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau temporarily blocked the citizenship of Russian dissident Maria Kartasheva. The reason was that she had a conviction (after a trial in absentia) in Russia for condemning the Ukrainian war. The Canadian government declared that Kartasheva’s conviction in Russia aligns with a Criminal Code offense relating to false information in Canada.
In other words, her use of free speech could be prosecuted in Canada under its abusive Section 372(1) of the Criminal Code, punishing speech deemed to be “convey[ing] false information with the intent to alarm or injure anyone.”
Vance ran through just a fraction of the parade of horribles, from Britain arresting people for silent prayers near abortion clinics to Sweden prosecuting a religious protester who burned a Koran, with Judge Göran Lundahl insisting that freedom of expression does not constitute a “free pass to do or say anything.” Apparently, it does not include acts once called blasphemy or insulting religion.
Vance also mocked the underlying premise for speech crackdowns to combat “disinformation,” pointing out that these measures constitute a far greater threat to citizens in the West than any external threat. He had the courage to say what has long been verboten on the restriction of speech to combat foreign influence: “if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.”
In perhaps the greatest single declaration uttered by an American leader since John F. Kennedy in Germany declared “Ich bin ein Berliner,” he added: “If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you. Nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people that elected me and elected President Trump.”
The reaction of the European diplomats was one of astonishment. Few even offered the usual polite applause. Instead, rows of smug leaders looked straight ahead with the same level of disgust as if Vance were the second coming of the Visogoths threatening the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace.
In a single speech, Vance shattered the hypocrisy of our allies’ calling for a defense of the West while abandoning Western values. They did not like it, and many in the American press joined in dismissing his address.
He was called a “wrecking ball” for bringing up the anti-free speech movement that has swept over Europe. One German official declared “This is all so insane and worrying.” This is a diplomat from a nation that shredded free speech for decades, to the point of arresting people over their ringtones.
Of course, our own anti-free speech voices were in attendance, too. Politico quoted one “former House Democratic staffer” who bravely attacked Vance anonymously: “I was aghast … He was blaming the victim. What the f— was that? I had my mouth open in a room full of people with their mouth open. That was bad.”
No, it was not bad. It was glorious.
After Elon Musk purchased Twitter with the pledge to dismantle the company’s censorship system, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton turned to the EU, calling on it to use its Digital Service Act to force the censorship of her fellow American citizens. That did not leave many people agape. But Vance’s defense of free speech is considered a breathtaking outrage.
In “Hillbilly Elergy,” Vance explained his lack of faith in transformative moments.
“I’ve seen far too many people awash in a genuine desire to change, only to lose their mettle when they realized just how difficult change actually is,” he wrote.
And there is no “genuine desire to change” in Europe. The appetite for censorship is now insatiable, and free speech is in a free fall.
In the midst of this crackdown, Vance spoke with a quintessentially American voice. It was clear, honest and unafraid. There was no pretense or evasion. It was a speech about who we are as a nation and the values that still define us — and no longer define our allies.
They saw him as a virtual hillbilly, an American hayseed who does not understand transnational values.
For the rest of us, it was a true elegy — part lament and part liberating.
Bravo, Mr. Vice President, Bravo.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Some think Vance is the avatar of fascism. Most (self-included) think he is the avatar of anti-fascism.
Reading the comments of JD’s detractors on this blog, one realizes they’re using a different dictionary than the norm. In their dictionary, a “fascist” or a “Nazi” is someone who promotes free speech, counsels listening to the concerns of the voters, advocates for respecting the results of elections, and wants to make government spending transparent so the people can see what the government is doing. They are apparently in contact with extraterrestrials because their dictionary comes from a place called Opposite World.
😂
Jonathan: Another thing JD told the European leaders in Munich was that the “threat from within” was a real danger. The idea that European governments are somehow cracking down on political speech. Vance called this dangerous. Hitler used virtually the same language in describing Germany’s “enemy within”, the Jews, the Socialists and Communists and other supporters of the Weimar Republic. And we know what happened to them.
And Vance also hypocritically lectured European leaders about the need for “free and fair” elections and not to suppress the voices of dissent. This comes from the guy who not only refuses to acknowledge that Biden won a “free and fair” election in 2020 but also thinks his administration’s crackdown on free expression is just fine.
European leaders got a wake up call from JD Vance in Munich. They now realize they are dealing with fascists in the US!
Dennis: “Hitler used virtually the same language…”
++×
I didn’t know that Dennis is Margaret Brennan’s sock puppet.
Hilarious, thanks!
Your analogy makes no sense. Not that we’re surprised, I just thought I’d point that out.
God, No!!! Vance used the same word as Hitler – “Within” – it is a dog whistle to Nazi’s everywhere.
Only a moron does not Grasp that Vance’s “Threat from within – was LEFT wing nut Europen governments supressing the speach of their people – NOT the actual people or some segment of them.
Every single day YOU use a word Hitler used. Probably atleast twise a week you use two words in a row that Hilter used.
This nonsense is stupid.
No the Nazi’s did not favor free speech – they censored it – it was one of the crimes they were tried for at Nuremberg
“And we know what happened to them.”
Tomorow Vance is going to start rounding up European Bureaucrats and shipping the, to concentration camps.
Please keep up the absurd nonsense.
“This comes from the guy who not only refuses to acknowledge that Biden won a “free and fair” election in 2020”
He did not, He won an election that was undeniably lawless, not treansparent and likely rigged.
What was different from 2020 to 2024 ? 280,000 Election observers and 9,000 lawyers deployed to 6 key cities in 6 swing states. And as a result – about democratic 10M ballots “disappeared”
“but also thinks his administration’s crackdown on free expression is just fine.”\
Where is this administration cracking down on free expression ?
Trump has not censored anyone.
Everything within the state.
nothing outside the state
nothing against the State
Musollini defining Fascism.
JD Vance – the enemy is the state.
Yeah – Vance is definitely channeling fascism
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Hitler – Mein Kampf
are you kidding me? you are so tone deaf
Reading the right wing extremist comments on Turley’s blog it appears to be Nazi day.
Is that you Hillary?
LOL
Tell IRS I want the $13M they stole from my family and Veterans affairs I want financial restitution for killing my father.
Sounds like he deserved it.
no but you sure do
What right wing extremists ? Most posters here are center or center right. Turley is center left.
There are a few wacko extreme left wing nuts.
No Nazi’s no KKK
When you spray nonsense like advoating FOR free speech is fascism you just make yourself look like a fool,
And you prove that George Orwell was right.
Bravo, Mr. Turley, Bravo.
Europe is communist.
America is almost communist.
Europe must adopt the U.S. Constitution.
America must resume full adherence to the Constitution.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what they forbid.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
The problem is that the center-right parties in Europe have wandered leftward for years. The CDU/CSU and Tories are center-left for all practical matters. France is even worse.
The USA has always been just to the right of Northern Europe, and America is barely center-right at the moment, so it’s not surprising that Northern Europe has succumbed to leftist globalists.
There’s hope for the USA, but I’m afraid it’s already too late for Europe. There’s nothing to defend in Northern Europe. Australia and New Zealand are also much in doubt.
Vance is right. Allies who want to shut you up and cancel your elections and jail your leaders are NOT allies, the paper tiger in Moscow notwithstanding.
JD Vance Ignores Homicidal Dictator Leading America’s Bitter Enemy But Blames America’s Friends
Nope. Russia is more of a threat to itself. Your Democrats have inflated that threat to wag the dog, but that dog won’t hunt anymore.
@Diogenes
Let’s be honest: that dog won’t won’t even pant anymore, it’s far too tired.
Precious Trumptards believe that Putin is for peace.
No, they just understand that you do not poke bears, and that when your in a hole the way out is not to keep digging.
Putin and Xi are threats. Quite manageable ones – so long as we do not start a nuclear war.
Selling out our core values makes us into Russia and China.
Is it victory to defeat Putin and Xi if in the process we become them ?
“‘America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedom it will be because we destroyed ourselves.’ — Abraham Lincoln.
Jonathan: You can put lipstick on a pig–but it’s still just a pig. You fawn over JD Vance’s speech to the Munich Security Conference as “Churchillian” and “a tour de force of our core values”. Vance’s speech was met with disdain and unified opposition from European leaders at the Conference. One diplomat put it this way: “We’ve now got an alliance between a Russian president who wants to destroy Europe and an American president who wants to destroy Europe”.
Vance’s speech was laced with threats against Europe, “There’s mothing America can do for you”. Vance’s message to European leaders? If you don’t agree to turn Ukraine over to Putin don’t expect out support. Vance’s speech was more like that of Chamberlain in 1938. It was definitely not “Churchillian”.
Vance did address “free speech” issues in Europe. But Vance’s concept of free expression, like yours, is to endorse the right-wing neo-Nazi NFD party in Germany. It’s no coincidence that Elon Musk has also endorsed the NFD. Vance met with Alice Weidel, the leader of the NFD, and also endorsed her. It’s like Roosevelt’s VP John N Garner meeting with Hitler and his Nazi Party just before the 1933 German elections! German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rebuked Vance for meeting with Weidel: “The AFD is a party that trivializes the crimes, crimes against humanity such as those committed in Dachau, as a bird’s eye view of history. A commitment to ‘never again’ cannot therefore be reconciled with support for the NFD”.
DJT and JD Vance stand with anti-democratic forces–the NFD in German and Putin in Ukraine. That has nothing to do with “our core values”!
#74. …and birds have been flying to the moon for the cheese
You see these dictators up on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. They’re afraid of words and thought. … They make frantic efforts to bar our thoughts and words. … A state of society where men may not speak their mind – where children denounce their parents to the police – where a businessman or small shopkeeper ruins his competitor by telling tales about his private opinion. Such a state of society cannot long endure if it is continually in contact with the healthy outside world.
Winston Churchill
Judged by every standard which history has applied to Governments, the Soviet Government of Russia is one of the worst tyrannies that has ever existed in the world. It accords no political rights. It rules by terror. It punishes political opinions. It suppresses free speech. It tolerates no newspapers but its own. It persecutes Christianity with a zeal and a cunning never equalled since the times of the Roman Emperors. It is engaged at this moment in trampling down the peoples of Georgia and executing their leaders by hundreds.
Winston Churchill
I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.
Winston Churchill
” Vance’s speech was met with disdain and unified opposition from European leaders at the Conference.”
Then I guess Europe can do without the US.
You want our help – do not piss on our values – ones Europeans claim to share.
The US president seeks to restore Europe to the western values that we inherited from it
rather than let it become the same as Russia.
“Vance’s speech was laced with threats against Europe, ”
Absolutely – if Europe continues to piss on what are supposed to be our shared values – why should we defend Europe.
Americans shed their blood on European fields to RESTORE Freedom to Europe TWICE.
Europe is surrendering that Freedom willingly – Becoming the Russia they are begging the US to protect them from.
Vance’s speech was not about Ukraine.
If Ukraine wants to continue to fight Russia – they are free to do so.
If Europe wants to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia – Europe can provide what Ukraine actually needs – boots on the ground.
What neither Ukraine nor Europe can do is to FORCE the US to continue to waste Treasure delaying the inevitable.
Ukraine can not win its war with Russia with more planes and tanks and high tech artillery.
For Ukraine to push Russia out of the 4 eastern Oblasts and/or Crimea – Ukraine needs more soldiers.
The US is NOT supplying those.
I do not see any nation in Europe offering to sacrifice its children’s blood for Ukraine.
From a few months after the start of the war it was OBVIOUS to everyone that a Ukrainian victory REQUIRED Ukraine to maintain a 5:1 causualty rate against Russia. Ukraine has done well – the rate is about 3:1.
That is not good enough though. and eventually Ukraine will lose.
And a million or so more will die first.
“Vance’s concept of free expression, like yours, is to endorse the right-wing neo-Nazi NFD party in Germany. ”
It is the afd not NFD regardless, Vance – like I come from the country that refused to infringe on the free speech of actual nazi’s marching through a community of Hollocaust survivors.
Endorsing free speech is NOT endorsing what Others say.
“The AFD is a party that trivializes the crimes, crimes against humanity such as those committed in Dachau, as a bird’s eye view of history.”
So Stoltz does not call the AFD Nazi’s just people who grasp that Hitler was 80 years ago.
I am unwilling to “endorse: the afd – and neither did Vance. But they are near certain to be the core of the next german government. They may prove worse than the current left wing nut coalition or not, only time will tell.
You have repeatedly told us that trump was a Nazi – we do not beleive you.
You don’t matter anymore.
We know Turls is paid to defend MAGA, but comparing the fat-faced little prick, set up by an oligarch, and who got into office because his running mate lied, to Churchill is a bridge way too far. Excerpted from BBC:
“US Vice-President JD Vance has launched a scalding attack on European democracies, saying the greatest threat facing the continent was not from Russia and China, but “from within”.
It had been expected that Vance would use his speech at the Munich Security Conference to address possible talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Instead, he spent the majority accusing European governments – including the UK’s – of retreating from their values, and ignoring voter concerns on migration and free speech.
The address was met by silence in the hall, and later denounced by several politicians at the conference. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said it was “not acceptable”.
Vance repeated the Trump administration’s line that Europe must “step up in a big way to provide for its own defence”.
The Ukraine war was mentioned, with Vance saying he hoped a “reasonable settlement” could be reached, after US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement earlier this week that he and Russia’s Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin peace talks.
But Vance’s address otherwise focused on culture-war issues and key themes of Trump’s campaign for the US presidency – a departure from the usual security and defence discussions at the annual conference.
He alleged European Union “commissars” were suppressing free speech, blamed the continent for mass migration, and accused its leaders of retreating from “some of its most fundamental values”.
Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia, told Politico Vance’s remarks were “insulting” and “just empirically not true”.
Vance used his 20-minute speech to single out several European nations, including the UK.
He raised a legal case in which an army veteran who silently prayed outside an abortion clinic was convicted of breaching an 150-metre safe zone around the centre.
The safe zone, introduced in October 2022, bans activity in favour or against abortion services, including protests, harassment and vigils.
But Vance argued that the “basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular” were under threat.
Vance went on to criticise the use of laws enforcing buffer zones, saying that free speech was in retreat and alleging that the Scottish government had warned people against private prayer within their own homes.
In response, the Scottish government said Vance’s claim was “incorrect” and the law was “carefully drafted to capture only intentional or reckless behaviour close to a small number of premises providing abortion services”.
Nine days before a tense national election in Germany, he touched on a heated debate in the country around mainstream political parties maintaining a so-called “firewall” of non-cooperation with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
In the decades since democracy was restored in Germany after the defeat of the Nazis, there has been a consensus among its main political parties not to work with far-right parties.
“Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters,” Vance said. “There’s no room for firewalls. You either uphold the principle or you don’t.”
The AfD’s candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, later shared parts of his speech on X, praising it as “excellent”. The two reportedly met afterwards, according to German public broadcaster ZDF.”
Hey, Turls: when are you going to comment on all of the Court cases Trump has lost–just like you did with Biden?
Gigi. You really are a long winded hateful little man. I will side with free speech any day and every day. You can “woke” yourself to hell in a hand basket along with your thuggish elite friends . Hugs!🤦♀️
Name a single case he has lost, Gigenius.
Name a single case he has lost, Gigenius
Gigi,
The US sent our soldiers to europe to fight and die for THEIR Freedom TWICE
Now they are just giving it away for nothing.
Absolutely Vance should berate them. They are pissing on the blood that WE shed for their Freedom.
the “threat from within” in Europe is the same as in the US – while it is often driven by left wing woke idiots who think anyone that disagrees with them should be silenced.
Ultimately they are not the Threat – the US and Europe can tolerate and survive lunatics on the left or even the right.
The THREAT – in the US and in Europe is GOVERNMENT censorship.
That Censorship in the US has never risen to the level it has in Europe. But it is very real, and it has been defeated – atleast for now. Our government is no longer involves in censoring the news, or social media. We have shut down govenrment funding of private censorship NGO’s
But Censorship in Europe is a serious problem. Europe is free to have its own laws.
It is NOT free to expect the US to spend blood and treasure to defend european freedoms that Europe just pisses away.
You rant about Putin. What separates Countries that arrest people for silent prayer in their homes from Putin’s Russia ?
We shed out blood for european FREEDOM not so that they could become Russia lite.
Absolutely Vance was correct to berate Europe – and he should have similarly berated democrats who used government power to silence ANYONE about ANYTHING.
The soul of america is liberty – and those of you on the left want to kill that. To make the US into a totalitarian lite regime – like many european countries.
That is wrong, that is evil.
European leaders are free to do as they please. They should not expect help from the US if they can not distinguish themselves from Tyrants.
It was highly unlikely that Vance would discuss the Ukraine/Russia peace process.
US negotiators are not going to tip their hats or limit their options.
Europe has had 3 years to bring peace to Ukraine. They could have provided the equipment and money that Ukraine needed.
They could have provided the boots on the ground.
If Putin is a threat to Europe – then Europeans should have been in the front lines fighting in Ukraine.
They were not.
Even today Europe can end all US efforts to negotiate Peace in Ukraine, simply by providing Ukraine the resources – men and weapons needed to defeat Putin. No one and nothing is stopping them.
Ukraine would welcome European troops. The US would do nothing to stop them.
Putin would be easily defeated if even ONE significant European country committed troops to Ukraine.
The US and European Left started this mess with lose talk of Ukraine joining NATO.
NATO members committ to defending other NATO members when attacked.
Where are the polish, Check, German, French. Spanish and English Troops defending Ukraine ?
If NATO means ANYTHING then – NATO Troops should be in Ukraine fighting right now.
The US – even under Biden made clear that US troops were NOT fighting in Ukraine.
That alone makes clear that Talk of Ukraine Joining NATO was stupid and dangerous talk without substance.
Bush talked of Georgia joining NATO – and Russia invaded Georgia.
Obama talked of Ukraine joining NATO – and Russia occupied Crimea.
Biden talked of Ukraine joining NATO – and Russia invaded Ukraine.
Trump did NOT talk about expanding NATO to Russia’s doorstep – and Putin left his neighbors alone.
This mess was made by Democrats, the US left and Europeans – and Trump is going to clean it up.
If you do not like the way he is doing so – Trump can be stopped trivially – Europeans and/or US left wing nuts can go and fight in Ukraine.
Ukraine has all the fighters and tanks and smart weapons that it can use – and it is doing so to great effect.
But it is still losing.
Ukraine has ALWAYS needed one thing it does not have to defeat Russia – More Soldiers. More Boots on the ground.
The UK, France, Germany. Spain, Poland are each ALONE capable of providing more than enough troops to defeat Putin.
Yet they have not done so.
No country in Europe beleives Putin is a threat to Europe or they would have sent troops.
Awesome speech. Our extraordinary VP left the EU oligarks speechless. I am as proud to have him as our VP as I am Donald Trump as our President.
And if you were in a foxhole with me in battle, you wouldn’t make it home.
What would you do bore him to death, beat him with your purse or suck the life out of him?
The Russians released 28 year old Kalob Byers after being arrested on smuggling cannabis into Russia just this past February 7th. He was facing 10 years in a Russian work camp. His aunt and uncle are rabid anti-Trump super duper Democrats. Even after Trump secured the kids release, they continue with their rabid anti-Trump rhetoric on their Facebook page. They can’t give a Republican any credit, no matter how much it helps them. Sadly, I know them.
And that sort of super-indoctrinated mindset IS THE BIGGEST THREAT to America.
We can beat the russians and the chinese but we cannot undo decades of mind control by the media/education industries (and now we are finding that the sane adults in the nation were having their precious tax dollars re-routed to fund such progressive, untested anthropological experiments such as drag queen story hours, tampons in men’s rooms and free tuition for hamas-supporting terrorists etc.)
If we think we can re-educate such hard core progs we are fooling ourselves. It would be as effective as killing all the cockroaches that you see on your kitchen floor and ignoring the fact that they are embedded within the walls of your entire home.
What I don’t understand is why the family gave Putin another “chit” for the upcoming negotiations with Trump on the Ukraine. The family hates Putin and wants to see him “gone”. Surely if they felt so strongly they should have refused giving Putin even the tiniest of a plus in those negotiations. I guess some people want it “both ways” (no, even I won’t go there:)
@whimsicalmama
Excellent comment, and all too true. We have our own enemy within, and it’s going to take a long time to fix it even under the best of circumstances. We really can’t afford to slide backward any longer, and it’s the height of irony that the main instigators of that slide over the past couple of decades term themselves ‘progressives’.
The first key to undoing is the total landscape of education, from daycare centers to post doctoral studies. The entire industry is poisoned with progressive rot. Until those prog infestations are eliminated and a few generations are raised without all that pernicious prog indoctrination, we will not succeed because those of us who know better on on the second half of life and will be gone in a few decades.
We remember how things were before the real communist push in our schools and media in the early 60s. I never let my kids watch sesame street and they learned trades rather then allow their minds to be washed in some institution of higher (socialist, America-hating) institution. But what do we do with generations of human flotsam that are either 1) generational welfare, or 2) generational progressive insanity?
Both of those classes of Americans have been purposefully indoctrinated in ideologies that run totally contrary to traditional American values as envisioned by our founding fathers. They are not a small group and are embedded in our cultural structure and we are, only now, realizing the devastating effects they are having to our economy and social structure.
@whinsicalmama
Oh, many of us sounded alarms long ago. No one cared to listen.
What it all boils down to who needs who? Who has a largest trade deficit or benefit at risk? Also, you must consider who contributes the greatest portion of operational contributions for NATO, not including other strategic operations such as Naval Fleets, Air defenses not directly aligned with NATO but subservient in allegiance to NATO agreement. Newsweek reported that the United States has funded NATO $21.7 Trillion during its 75-year history, just to protect a bunch pompous plebeian snobs from a roving Bear. I haven’t touched what was spent on the redevelopment post WWII or the lack of return for our expenditures’. After all this they have surrendered reason to the Communist ideology of State superiority.
Also does anyone truly believe that NATO would stand with America if attacked by China? George W
They did with 911.
The trade deficit argument is nonsense. The U.S. is the world’s largest per-capita consumer of global goods and services. Expecting less affluent nations to buy our more expensive products at the same rate is mathematically absurd—especially when the average Chinese, Canadian, or Mexican citizen consumes far less food, electronics, and home goods than Americans. We benefit from this system by getting cheap imports. Sure, an iPhone could be built in the U.S., but it would cost over $4,000. Who’s buying that?
Now, onto NATO. The idea that the U.S. is being “taken advantage of” is ignorant. Germany has the technological and military capability to rebuild a world-class force. History proves it: after World War I, Germany was shattered, yet within seven years, it built the most advanced military of its time. Had it not overextended into the USSR, it might have won. The U.S. took on European defense responsibilities after WWII specifically to prevent Germany from militarizing again. But thanks to Trump’s shortsighted policies, we’re pushing them right back into it. Germany leads in military logistics software, atomic research (a key player behind the Large Hadron Collider at CERN), and enterprise databases. If their economy declines further, history suggests they will turn to militarization—congratulations, you’re advocating for another arms race.
And let’s talk trade. Europe is America’s largest trade partner, surpassing both Canada and Mexico. The Marshall Plan and NATO established the postwar global order that made American prosperity possible. Before WWII, the average American was essentially a peasant. After the war, the U.S. became the world’s banker and manufacturer—not because of some inherent greatness, but because the rest of the world was in ruins. That’s where our affluence came from, not because we’re special.
But Trump and his followers refuse to understand this. They think the golden age of American manufacturing existed in a vacuum, rather than as a direct result of a devastated global economy. Go to West Virginia and hear people blame leadership for their struggles. The truth? The postwar party ended when the world rebuilt. Today, countries like India, China, and Mexico have superior tech and education systems. Meanwhile, in places like Mason City, Iowa—where I grew up—kids cared more about keggers and getting laid than doing their homework. Now, many of them are struggling adults, clinging to delusions about how the world works. And that’s the real root of the problem.
Probably the best comment in a long time, from Glenn Greenwald:
Those who failed or refused to see the massive opportunities from this Trump-led realignment — and instead enslaved themselves to the broken, ossified, unimaginative, status-quo perpetuating Democratic Party — are some of the dumbest people on the planet:
Floyd,
That was awesome!!
“best comment in a long time, from Glenn Greenwald”
Greenwald can be very perceptive at times. I read him for a long time, and only stopped because he stopped providing transcripts for his videos not long after he moved his blog to Substack. For reasons I won’t go into again at this time, I will never rely on videos for substantive informational content.
I have to be careful too. Lot of fake videos out there, like the Carrie Underwood Sues The View ones.
“Lot of fake videos out there”
My principal concern is over two issues: video (meaningful) content is much more difficult to analyze and verify in detail than text content (video was essentially perfected as a way to “lie” to an audience, i.e. the movie industry); related, videos are trivially easy to edit (by the original creator or anyone else), and changes made from the original are an order of magnitude more difficult to detect (and, again, analyze) than changes made to a text document. Some sources (such as Greenwald) might be more resistant to this than others, but I haven’t time to apply yet another layer of analysis to judge the accuracy of material I find on the internet.
The long years had passed, and in their wake, America had known only the careful tongue, the soft excuse, the polished diplomat smoothing over every rough edge, apologizing for things that needed no apology, bending always toward a Europe that itself had forgotten what it once was. And now, the old world, trembling under the weight of its own arrogance, its own folly, the doors thrown open to the flood, the streets boiling over, the heat rising—melting, breaking, collapsing under a dream that was never meant to stand. And Vance, stepping forward, did not bow, did not placate, did not weave a careful tale of half-truths and false comforts. He spoke as one should speak—to men, to nations, to those who had long since stopped listening but would now have no choice. He told them what they needed to hear, and he told it straight. The sun rises differently now over America, and Europe would do well to reckon with that before the night swallows them whole.
Your comment is poetry posing as prose. Excellent!
It’s reminiscent of a Civil War era poem called the mole hill. It can be found in a book titled, Field Fleet and Fort written by the men that fought the Battle. I found a copy after the BLM broke into a stole many of the DAR historic items. The copy I got was a gift dedicated to his son from his father. Enough said.
The words of JD Vance at Munich echo themes of Ronald Reagan’s 1964 speech “A Time for Choosing”, on behalf of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater. The Left hated Goldwater and Democrat presidential candidate, Lyndon B Johnson, a known racist with Democrats, spread fear amongst US voters with his Daisy ad. All lies, hence he won, just like Obama and Biden. Vance hit it out of the ballpark. Naturally the Left attack and lie in response to Vance because that is all they have
You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, “The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.”
The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.
https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/reagans/ronald-reagan/time-choosing-speech-october-27-1964
Reagan is vomiting in his grave when it comes to Trump.
OT – The Biggest Scam of All
“Asylum” is a grand fraud, and everyone knows it; “asylum” petitions must be rejected.
Perhaps 100 or 1,000, but not 20 million.
20 million Mexicans, Central, and South Americans are not being “persecuted” any more than conservative Americans are being persecuted in the U.S.
How many Trump appointees and supporters have been “persecuted?”
The illegal alien invaders must be compassionately repatriated with extreme prejudice.
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AI Overview
“Immigrants seek asylum from persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
‘Politico quoted one “former House Democratic staffer” who bravely attacked Vance anonymously: “I was aghast … He was blaming the victim. What the f— was that? I had my mouth open in a room full of people with their mouth open. That was bad.”’
So, the courageous former staffer was, by admission, a mouth-breather in a room full of fellow mouth-breathers. Is that at all surprising? BTW, Politico just might want to do some revenue projection for the next 12 months, omitting several million dollars worth of Fedgov “subscriptions”, and then adjust its editorial POV to one that might conceivably be able to attract new subscribers. This shite ain’t it…
I have read JD Vance’s book and observed his speeches, interviews, and debates. I have come away very impressed by many of his insights, his wit, and humble groundedness. It has been a very long time since we have had a VP that was as sharp and articulate as is Mr. Vance.
It feels like we are entering a new phase in the world as Germany is about to become the world’s first Communist Muslim hybrid nation… I’m not judging, I’m just sayin.
#74 That’d make me cry , too.
How can Jonathan remain a Democrat after this? If Vance has embodied true American, bold statesmanship in this speech, Turley should get on board The Freedom Train. Leave the Leftists at the station wondering what happened.
Short answer – Professor Turley did not leave the Democrat Party; the Democrat Party left him.
Professor Turley continues to believe in the ideals espoused at its origin; It is the Party that has turned its back on and forsaken those ideals and aspirations under the current Grandees and Jacobins that have hi-jacked the party. But the seeds of revolution were always there; Long-time leaders who should have known better and resisted take-over of the party were themselves the revolutionaries; seeking power over others rather than fidelity to principle.
Think about it: Nancy Pelosi (“We have to Pass the Bill so that you can find out what is in it”), scion of a Baltimore Political Dynasty, interned for Md Senator Brewster in the 1960’s, elected to the House of Representatives in 1987, rising to become Speaker. Chuck Schumer, Congressman since 1981, rising to be Senate Majority Leader (Pounding on the massive closed doors of the US Supreme Court in protest of a decision). Adam Schiff, Representative since 2001 (known Liar in the infamous Russia-Gate Hoax, immune from his prevarications by his status as congressman), just elected as the newest Senator from California.