Last Friday, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance offended many European leaders with a short speech at the Munich Security Conference.
Vance spoke frankly as guided by his values. But, given his audience and his objective of bridging differences between some in Europe and the Trump Administration, whether he was appropriately tactful and sufficiently gracious is less certain.
But what struck me was how fully he spoke in support of one of the foundational best practices advocated by the Caux Round Table’s Principles for Moral Government – discourse.
Here are excerpts from Vice-President Vance’s remarks:
Free speech, I fear, is in retreat …
Now, to many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, 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. …
I believe deeply that there is no security if you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people. …
And of course, we know that very well. In America, you cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail. Whether that’s the leader of the opposition, a humble Christian praying in her own home, or a journalist trying to report the news. Nor can you win one by disregarding your basic electorate on questions like who gets to be a part of our shared society. …
I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy. Speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference. …
To believe in democracy is to understand that each of our citizens has wisdom and has a voice. And if we refuse to listen to that voice, even our most successful fights will secure very little. As Pope John Paul II, in my view, one of the most extraordinary champions of democracy on this continent or any other, once said, “do not be afraid.” We shouldn’t be afraid of our people, even when they express views that disagree with their leadership. …
Here is the relevant Caux Round Table Principle:
Discourse ethics should guide the application of public power.
Public power, however allocated by constitutions, referendums or laws, shall rest its legitimacy in processes of communication and discourse among autonomous moral agents who constitute the community to be served by the government. Free and open discourse, embracing independent media, shall not be curtailed, except to protect legitimate expectations of personal privacy, sustain the confidentiality needed for the proper separation of powers or for the most dire of reasons relating to national security.
As U.S. President Thomas Jefferson asserted in his first inaugural address: “… error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.“