JD Vance Skewers Room Full of European Leaders Over Abuse of Christians
One can sense the relief - or trepidation in some quarters - as a wayward, sclerotic, 80-year-old international order melts into oblivion.
Who better to articulate and hasten that oblivion than the brilliant Vice President J.D. Vance?
In a series of clips posted to the social media platform X on Friday morning, Vance made clear to an audience of prominent Europeans at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that the United States under President Donald Trump disapproves of Europe's drift toward the totalitarian suppression of free speech, as well as its leaders' embrace of both mass migration and tyrannical climate policies in defiance of the will of their people, prompting one legal analyst to observe that "the delegates do not appear happy."
"Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it's sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War's winners," Vance said at the beginning of one clip.
One could scarcely imagine a more powerful framing of the clash between populism and elitist totalitarianism in the Western world.......................
Vance spent several minutes describing once-unfathomable government suppression of free speech - and even private prayer - in Belgium, Germany, Sweden, and especially the United Kingdom.
"In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat," the vice president said.
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.