Victor Davis Hanson: JD Vance’s Message to European Leaders: Listen to Your People, Don’t Go Hard Left

 The Daily Signal  "Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson"

"JD Vance was trying to speak truth to power, so to speak. And they didn’t want to hear it. And what’s going to happen in the next year, people in Europe are going to rise up—these populist movements.

. . ."And his critics said, “Oh, he’s just talking to the MAGA people at home.” He wasn’t. He wasn’t talking to the French ministers. He wasn’t talking to the MAGA people at home or the American people in general. He was talking to the people of Europe and they support him because we are going to see possible radical changes in the German government, some Eastern European governments, but especially, the French government, and maybe the British government the next time. And they’re going to be national populists. 

"And he was telling them, “You have a right to stand up.” And do what? His criticism was multifaceted: Close your borders. Legal-only immigration. Up your defense budget. Allow for free speech. We’ve gone through the Biden nightmare at home. We know what it was like to go hard left. Don’t go that way. Deregulate. Cut taxes. Free up the economy. 

"And they got very angry about that. It was almost as if they knew that was true but they could not admit it. 

"But here’s the subtext I’m talking about. Germany and Europe better be very careful. Germany’s fertility rate is 1.45. Europe’s, in aggregate, is only about 1.5. We’re at least 1.6.

We said years ago in 2014, “NATO, pay 2% of gross domestic product and hold your own and pull your own weight.” And now it’s 10 years, 11 years later and we still have nine NATO countries that will not do it, especially Germany. They only spend 1.5%. Their energy is four times ours. And BMW and Audi and Mercedes cannot compete.

"Why? Because they’ve gone full Green New Deal, so to speak, and shut down coal, nuclear, natural gas plants. They have 16% of the population was not born in Germany. France is almost as bad. And they do not assimilate, intermarry, and integrate like we do. They are looking at this huge Russian-Ukrainian war on their borders where maybe 1.5 million people have been killed or wounded or missing."