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Great Speech: Not Anti-European, but Anti-Woke

February 18, 2025

Published in La Razon
(Spain) on 16 February 2025
by Jorge Fernández Díaz (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Patricia Simoni. Edited by Michelle Bisson.

JD Vance sang a hymn to democracy, arguing that it cannot be based on the censorship of dissenting opinions.

In today's commentary, it is appropriate — because of its content, its audience and its qualified protagonist — to comment on a speech made by recently elected United States Vice President JD Vance. The venue was the Bavarian capital of Munich, the forum was the 66th International Security Conference, and the audience was a qualified representation of Western political and military elites.

To properly interpret Vance’s 20-minute, paperless speech, it helps to know his history. He is the 40-year-old son of a divorced woman who suffered abuse from the men in her life, and he was raised by a grandmother who raised him in accordance with her Evangelist religion. He attended prestigious Yale University and received a law degree; yet, because of personal contradictions between his religion and his reason, he joined the Marines and participated in the Iraq war in 2005. There, he became disenchanted with the values promoted by his country as he observed the mistreatment of various Christian minorities. The publication of a thoughtfully written memoir led to his early entry into politics in Ohio: He was elected to serve as a Republican senator of the United States.

The contradictions between Christian evangelism, his reason and his conscience culminated in 2019 with a conversion to Catholicism that followed his reading of “The Confessions” and “The City of God,” two extraordinary works by St. Augustine. The saint was a former Manichean heretic, given to pleasures, who converted because of the prayers and tears of his mother, St. Monica and who became his church’s well-known saint and religious healer. Vance continues to turn to St. Augustine as a model of conversion.

In Munich, he made a speech that was neither conventional nor politically correct, but quite the opposite. Speaking of Europe’s security, he affirmed that its main enemy is not Russia or China or any other external danger. Instead. the danger is the intrinsic loss of the values and principles upon which it was built, and neither the United States nor NATO can help it against that enemy.

He sang a hymn to democracy, arguing that it cannot be based on the censorship of opinions that differ from those held to be the only ones accepted by the “woke” culture that currently dominates the West, especially in the digital world. He considered the recent mass attack in Munich by an Afghan asylum-seeking immigrant to exemplify the reason for opposing the massive immigration of people with values contradictory to those of the West — values shared by Europe and the U.S.

He did not talk about Ukraine or next Sunday's German elections. But he did antagonize the government of socialist Olaf Scholz.

En el Trípode de hoy domingo, es oportuno -por su contenido, auditorio, y su cualificado protagonista- comentar la intervención del recién elegido vicepresidente de los EEUU, J.D. Vance. El lugar ha sido la capital bávara Múnich; el foro la Conferencia Internacional de Seguridad en su 66ª edición; y el auditorio una cualificada representación de las élites políticas y militares occidentales.

Para interpretar debidamente su discurso sin papeles y de unos 20 minutos, es preciso conocer el perfil del personaje, de 40 años, hijo de una mujer divorciada, que padeció maltrato de hombres que la visitaban y criado por una tía abuela que le inculcó la religión evangelista. Ingresó en la prestigiosa Universidad de Yale y se doctoró en Derecho, pero con contradicciones personales entre su religión y su razón se incorporó al ejército en los Marines y participó en la guerra de Irak en 2005. Allí quedó desencantado de los valores que promovía su país observando el trato dado a las diversas minorías cristianas. La publicación de un profundo libro suyo le convirtió en un joven candidato político y accedió al Senado federal por Ohio con el partido republicano.

Las contradicciones entre la doctrina evangelista con su razón y su conciencia culminaron en 2019 con su conversión al catolicismo. Fue con la lectura de «Las Confesiones» y «La Ciudad de Dios», la dos extraordinarias obras de san Agustín, anterior hereje maniqueo y entregado a los placeres, y convertido -por la oración y las lágrimas de su madre Santa Mónica- en el gran santo y doctor de la Iglesia. Y que sigue siendo su referencia como modelo de conversión. En Múnich hizo un discurso nada convencional ni políticamente correcto, sino todo contrario.

Hablando de la seguridad de Europa afirmó que el principal enemigo de ella no son ni Rusia ni China o cualquier otro peligro exterior, sino que está en su interior y es la pérdida de los valores y principios sobre los que se construyó, y que de ese enemigo no le pueden ayudar ni EEUU ni la OTAN. Hizo un canto a la democracia defendiendo que no puede basarse en la censura de las opiniones discrepantes del discurso que se considera como el único aceptado por la cultura «woke» actualmente dominante en Occidente, y en especial en el mundo digital. El reciente atentado masivo cometido en Múnich por un inmigrante afgano irregular solicitante de asilo le sirvió como ejemplo para oponerse a la masiva inmigración de personas con valores opuestos a los occidentales y compartidos por Europa y EEUU. No habló de Ucrania ni de las elecciones alemanas del próximo domingo. Pero contrarió al gobierno socialista de Scholz.

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