You know things are going well when hypocritical and self-righteous European authoritarians are in a snit, and things are going very, very well. Vice President JD Vance spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Friday and took the opportunity to remind the assembled European dignitaries of the importance of free societies, and the basic elements of such societies, including the freedom of speech and respect for a loyal opposition. In response, predictably, the despotic European leftists, who hate the freedom of speech and are busy crushing dissent, are weeping and gnashing their teeth at Deep Set Eyes Man Bad.
The UK’s Guardian was angry that Vance had been expected to talk about the war in Ukraine and common U.S.-European security concerns, but instead, Vance “launched a brutal ideological assault on Europe.” From that, you’d think that Vance had mocked Big Ben, wooden shoes, and lederhosen, but what the far-left Guardian considers to be “blistering and confrontational remarks” turns out to be “accusing its leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and running in fear from voters’ true beliefs.” Well, those are indeed Europe’s most cherished values today, so it's no surprise that the Guardian’s feathers would be ruffled.
Vance argued that the real threat Europe faced wasn’t from Russia or China. He said: “What I worry about is the threat from within.” Europe, he said, was discarding some of its “most fundamental values.” What really must have enraged the gathered leftists was Vance’s proclamation that “there is a new sheriff in town.” He added: “Democracy will not survive if their people’s concerns are deemed invalid or even worse not worth being considered.”
Vance directly challenged the efforts in Germany and France to criminalize rising opposition parties or at the very least, freeze them out by refusing to cooperate with them, saying: “If you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people … If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor for that matter is there anything you can do for the American people.” Indeed. That is especially true if America isn’t going in the same direction, as it was up until Jan. 20, 2025.
“To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic,” Vance continued, “it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election.” Those words apply as much to America in 2020 as to the Europeans in 2025, but the Europeans were outraged anyway.
AP reported that Vance also “said no democracy could survive telling millions of voters that their concerns ‘are invalid or unworthy of even being considered. Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There’s no room for firewalls.'” He was referring to the “firewall” that establishment parties have constructed in Germany around the anti-mass migration party Alternative for Germany (AfD), pledging to refuse to work with it in a coalition government and thus making it virtually impossible for AfD to form a government.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius professed amazement at Vance’s effrontery, saying without a trace of irony: “If I understood him correctly, he is comparing conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes. That is unacceptable, and it is not the Europe and not the democracy in which I live and am currently campaigning.” Got that? Suggesting that Europe is sliding downward into authoritarianism is “unacceptable.” Nothing authoritarian about that.
Pistorius asserted that “every opinion has a voice in this democracy. It makes it possible for partly extremist parties like AfD to campaign completely normally, just like every other party.” Remember that in his infamous red-and-black speech of Sept. 1, 2022, Old Joe Biden claimed that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Pistorius and Biden are both part of the same corrupt establishment that smears its genuine opposition as “extremist” in an effort to frighten voters away from that opposition.
Related: Donald Trump is Striking at the Heart of the Left's Central Belief
Also like Biden and his henchmen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz played the Nazi card: “Out of the experiences of Nazism, the democratic parties in Germany have a joint consensus — that is the firewall against extreme right-wing parties.”
Vance also criticized the European elites for opening the “floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants,” which annoyed Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre: “He speaks as though we are not focused on immigration in Europe. I mean, this is the big theme in every country, that we want to have control of our borders.” Yeah, you want to, but you don’t, and there are reasons for that you don’t wish to face.
"Trust me, I say this with all humor," Vance said. "If American democracy can survive ten years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk." We shall see if they can.
