German leader defends censorship to "defend democracy" (02-17-2025--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] Political capital. I remember the first time I heard this term, political capital. George W. Bush said it after he won re-election. And he said, we're going to try to reform Social Security. Outrage ensued. But he said at that original press conference where he talked about it, he said that he had some political capital and he intended to spend it. What was he talking about?

[00:00:57] Well, he had won the popular vote, right? He had, if I recall correctly, he had won re-election against John F. Kerry, who I believe served in Vietnam, I think, and John Edwards. He had beaten them to win re-election in 2004. And he had amassed this political capital. And that was the first time I had heard that term.

[00:01:23] But that's what J.D. Vance is sort of referencing, but not by the same name. But he's saying that you have a mandate from the citizens when you run a campaign. You say, these are the things I'm going to do. They then vote for you to do those things. That's what gives you the power in a democracy. That's the point.

[00:01:48] If you are going to not do the things that the citizens want, you create the instability. Because the people are demanding something that you're not giving them. This just came across three minutes ago from LegalInsurrection.com. They've got the results of a Marquette poll.

[00:02:13] And Donald Trump has broad support on multiple issues. We're talking 60%, really, across the board. Plus or minus one or two points here. But, for example, 63% favor government's recognition of only two sexes. 63%. 63%. 60% want the deporting of immigrants who are here illegally.

[00:02:43] 60% want to expand oil and gas production. 59% support the declaration of an emergency at the southern border. So these are things that the American public wants. Trump promised to do these things. And he is now simply trying to fulfill his campaign promises. He will not be punished for that. He will be celebrated for it.

[00:03:11] And when you have this class of quote-unquote elites, which at some point now that's turning into a slur. I'm not sure they're aware of it. But when you think you know better than all of these other people, these hundreds of millions of people, but you know better because you're the expert. But they don't want what you are doing. They don't want what you're selling.

[00:03:40] But they don't know what's good for them. I'm not so sure about that. I think maybe they do. You get enough people that have a similar view of something, I would say they probably do have a pretty good idea of what they want. You have to at least ask them. And in Europe it's the same thing. And that's what J.D. Vance references when he's talking about the migration problem, the illegal immigration problem in Europe.

[00:04:09] Your citizens do not want this anymore. If they ever did initially. This is why astroturfing never succeeds in the long term. These are, you know, whatever gains. So astroturfing is the fake grassroots, right? So a grassroots movement, like the Tea Party for example, that was a grassroots movement inside the Republican Party. That has legs.

[00:04:38] That will be built to last because those are actual people with actual beliefs that turn out, they're not politically engaged, but then they become engaged over a particular issue as the Tea Partiers did. And there is a difference there than the astroturfing through these NGOs, these government-funded or foundation-funded entities, these activist groups that turn out in the streets

[00:05:08] and, you know, handcuff themselves to, you know, famous works of art and throw paint on them and scream at people and set up tentifadas everywhere. Like, that is not built to last. Because it's not real. It's astroturf. You think it's going to last. You think it's going to be the superior product. Look, it's fake. It won't wither. It won't die. It won't whatever. Yeah, the grass is actually better.

[00:05:38] Like, the natural grassroots, that's actually more durable than the astroturfing. So, he's talking about having a mandate from your citizens to govern. Okay? You need the mandates from your people if you want to enjoy competitive economics, affordable energy, and secure supply chains. You cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail.

[00:06:07] 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. And of all the pressings, challenges, that the nations represented here face, I believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration.

[00:06:35] Today, almost one in five people living in this country moved here from abroad. That is, of course, an all-time high. It's a similar number, by the way, in the United States, also an all-time high. The number of immigrants who entered the EU from non-EU countries doubled between 2021 and 2022 alone. And, of course, it's gotten much higher since. And we know the situation, it didn't materialize in a vacuum. It's the result of a series of conscious decisions

[00:07:04] made by politicians all over the continent and others across the world over the span of a decade. Right. It's been intentional. It is absolutely intentional. And your citizens do not want it. And that's why you are seeing the blowback. Right. The blowback is coming in the form of these, quote-unquote, right-wing, depending on which country you're in, but they're coming from these, quote, right-wing populist movements.

[00:07:33] And when you keep banning them or you try to suppress their speech, you don't invite them to participate in the conference, for example, you're actually amplifying their grievances. And people then start saying, well, wait a minute, how come these guys are getting shut out? I happen to agree. I think it's gotten out of control. I know somebody who got attacked by some, you know, asylee or something, right? You end up creating more of the thing that you're trying to stamp out.

[00:08:03] It's like the tighter you clench the fist, the more slips through your fingers. That's what he's warning them about. And just the day before, so Thursday, the day before this Friday conference, there was a terrorist attack in the very city where they held the conference, in Munich. How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course

[00:08:32] and take our shared civilization in a new direction? No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants. But you know what they did vote for? In England, they voted for Brexit and agree or disagree, they voted for it. And more and more all over Europe, they're voting for political leaders who promise to put an end to out-of-control migration. Now, I happen to agree

[00:09:02] with a lot of these concerns, but you don't have to agree with me. I just think that people care about their homes, they care about their dreams, they care about their safety and their capacity to provide for themselves and their children. And they're smart. I think this is one of the most important things I've learned in my brief time in politics. Contrary to what you might hear a couple mountains over in Davos, the citizens of all of our nations don't generally think of themselves as educated animals

[00:09:31] or as interchangeable cogs of a global economy. And it's hardly surprising that they don't want to be shuffled about or relentlessly ignored by their leaders. And it is the business of democracy to adjudicate these big questions at the ballot box. 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.

[00:10:01] In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy. They're sore losers. Right? They're sore losers. They're like, oh, this is the way forward. This is the way to do it. And then when the people say, well, actually, no, we don't want to go that way. You don't know what you're talking about. It's for democracy. I have to protect democracy. So shut up. That's the argument that this German guy is going to make after J.D. Vance speaks.

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[00:11:59] having a mandate from your voters, having, you know, listening to the things that they want, that's the strength of a democracy for all you defenders of it. And he said, look, you know, I get it, you know, people have different ideas than you and you want to do one thing and they want to do something else, but that, but if you win an election, if you're the elected leadership and your citizens want to do something that you don't want to do, then, like, you need to listen to your citizens

[00:12:29] or else you no longer have a mandate. And then he pointed out, look, if America can survive a decade of scolding from Greta Thunberg, then Europe can survive a few months of Elon Musk, he said, which I thought was a pretty good line. And then he says, no democracy will survive if the people have their concerns, aspirations, their opinions, and their pleas

[00:12:58] for relief if they are told that these things are invalid, right, or they are even unworthy of even being considered. Your democracy will not survive. Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There's no room for firewalls. You either uphold the principle or you don't. Europeans,

[00:13:28] the people, have a voice. European leaders have a choice. And my strong belief is that we do not need to be afraid of the future. You can embrace what your people tell you even when it's surprising, even when you don't agree. And if you do so, you can face the future with certainty and with confidence knowing that the nation stands behind each of you. And that, to me, is the great magic of democracy. It's not in these

[00:13:58] stone buildings or beautiful hotels. It's not even in the great institutions that we have built together as a shared society. 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. Right. What is he like? What is the purpose of all of this? Right. He is issuing them a warning,

[00:14:27] a warning that it seems like the American people have heeded with this last election. The support that I ran over, ran through the numbers of the, you know, the favorability of these things that Trump is doing, 60 percent to prove, I would like it to be higher and maybe it will go higher. That's possible. But he's telling them something that really shouldn't

[00:14:56] even have to be said but apparently does. Right. To return to the principles upon which this society, this civilization was founded. And you're not going to preserve this thing by ignoring or, you know, being in direct opposition to these fundamental principles. And it's just to listen to your people. I mean, how absurd

[00:15:26] is this really? When you think, step back and think for a moment how absurd it must be to have to tell people in leadership, political leadership that claim to be the defenders of the democracy that that means you have to listen to your people. I don't know what you think this whole democracy thing is. But it means listening to the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box and not suppressing them when they tell you they think

[00:15:55] you're doing it wrong because the people are telling you you're doing it wrong. And then the guy from Germany got up there, Boris Pistorius. We'll take a listen to Boris. Well, actually, we'll hear a translator. All right. I hope you had a happy holiday season, but tell me if something like this happened at your house. Your family and friends are gathered around. Maybe y'all are in the living room. You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing, and then somebody says,

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[00:17:24] I was listening to NPR over the weekend and they, of course, put a slant on it saying that somehow J.D. Vance was supporting right-wing ideology, extremism, etc. And then I listened to his speech and he said basically free speech and listened to all sides. NPR feeding the lefties what they want to hear. Yeah, it, I've become just so disappointed

[00:17:53] in NPR over the last 20 years. It just gets worse and worse. My goodness. I mean, every single story has the same slant. Every, I mean, there's a show where it's like we welcome your participation and then you basically have to either call and leave a voicemail which they, of course, will then screen out so it says, you know, they're only going to put on the air a voicemail from somebody that has something that they want to hear

[00:18:23] or you can send them an email and they'll read your email if it comports with what they want to say. The narrative they're trying to advance. It's very obvious and every single show, every report, it's all filtered through every kind of, you know, social justice matrix. Oh my gosh, it's just exhausting. And it's like, oh, something happened, but how did it impact

[00:18:54] you know, this indigenous lesbian trans person, whatever. It's like, oh my gosh, really? Like, that's, it can't just be about the thing that happened. It's always got to be through this prism. So, but what you've just described there is, is on brand for NPR. They're going to frame it a certain way to make their audience believe that they are correct in whatever notions they have of J.D. Vance. You listen to what Vance

[00:19:23] says in this speech, and it is very clear that he's saying you need to listen to your citizens when they are telling you things. But see, the NPR crowd and these European leaders, they don't want to hear what J.D. or the citizens are saying. So they have to reject what Vance is saying, and they can't argue on the merits, so they're going to say, oh, well, he's just trying to be a right winger or something like that. That's,

[00:19:53] it's so juvenile. It is anti-intellectual. listen to what he is saying, and then combat his arguments intellectually and logically. But they cannot do so because he is simply saying the thing that he thought everybody agreed, that the point of a democracy is for the people to elect leaders that will then do the things that the people want them to do. And,

[00:20:22] you know, when in the course of human events that the bonds between the government and the people have been severed, because the government is not listening to the people, the people have a right to throw off that government. That's the point of all of it. Otherwise, just go get yourself a king, Europe. Just go back to the way you guys used to do it, if that's what you want to do. In fact, hang on, I think I saw, yeah, I have a message here from Chip.

[00:20:52] Chip says, as far as I know, the U.S. is the only country ever founded on an idea. A monarch or a pope seems to be the default position in Europe. Therefore, is it any surprise that you see what's happening in Europe? By the way, would you point out the difference between misinformation and disinformation? Well, disinformation is the easy thing. So like when I'm talking, for example, I'm bringing you disinformation versus data information.

[00:21:27] misinformation is when information is not married. Otherwise, that would be misses information. No, that's not true either. Misinformation is basically when you're spreading stuff that you don't know is false. Right? It really, it goes to intent. Right? So if you are like, oh my gosh, I heard this story, and you start spreading the story around, but you don't know that the story is not true. You're just spreading it because, you know, for the likes and the clicks and whatever, or you're like,

[00:21:57] oh, it's crazy, too good to check. And so you don't check it and you just share it. It's misinformation. It's not true. Now, disinformation is when the information, the lie, is intentional and there is a purpose behind it. So there's a, it's deliberately misleading so as to affect people's opinions. It's not done as just, oh, my mistake, I made an error, you can make a correction, whatever, that would be

[00:22:26] misinformation. Disinformation is when you purposefully lie about something and get other people to spread it. See, so like, if I made up a lie, I would be engaged in disinformation, but if you heard that lie, you thought it was true, and then you promulgate it, you would be spreading misinformation. You would be misinforming, I would be disinforming. Hope that makes sense. Another email,

[00:22:58] this is from Susan, is there a difference between a democratic republic or a constitutional republic? Like, look, I know a lot of people get hung up on this stuff, on these terms. I understand why, okay, but honestly, like, if you go and look up like the founders, they oftentimes use these terms interchangeably because what they were talking about was a comparison between the monarchy and a government of the people by the

[00:23:28] people for the people, a democracy, right? And they come from different roots, so like democracy is from Greek, that means rule by the people, right? Republic comes from Latin, and that means public good or public affair that was used in Rome, ancient Rome, to mean the state or the country with reference to the Roman Republic. And so, you know, if you look up the dictionary

[00:23:57] definitions here, like, they are very, very similar and people use them interchangeably, but I understand why people get upset when it's like, because, I mean, democracy is, you know, three wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. That's why, like, the Republic is the system that you create and you democratically elect people to then represent the voters in the Republican system. Does that make sense? Yeah, I don't know if I've described it

[00:24:27] well enough. But, like, but I know people, it trips a lot of people's trigger when they hear democracy versus republic, constitutional republic, right? The constitutional republic, like, republic is a system, constitutional means that we have a set of laws, rules, and that's how the system is governed, is by these rules. Because you could, like, the Islamic state in Iran, that's a republic too. Do you think they've got the same thing we do? No.

[00:24:57] No, they do not. Because you can all say representative republic. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at

[00:25:26] check.ground. news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using Ground News a few months ago, and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself, check.ground. news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link, and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use

[00:25:55] the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. This is from wallbuilders.com. The form of government entrusted to us by our founders was a republic, not a democracy. The founders had so a system. So again, a republic is a system, a constitutional republic is a system,

[00:26:24] but we employ democracy, the will of the voters, the people, to elect the representatives to the constitutional representative republic. That's the idea. So one is a mechanism and one is the system. Because without that republic as the system, you would just have pure democracy or as the founders called it, mobocracy. That's the three wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. And you don't want that because it will burn

[00:26:54] itself out. So I think that one's a mechanism, one's a system. Hope that makes sense. That was in answer to, I think it was Susie who asked me. Mike writes into Pete at thepetecalendarshow.com. I too have been so disappointed in NPR over the past 15 years. I think a publicly supported network such as NPR should be the station where we get an unbiased news report.

[00:27:24] I have my charities that I donate money to and other than my charities I get a little stingy. However, I would donate to any organization whose purpose was to stop the feds from giving money to NPR. Well, I don't know if Doge is taking donations but I think they may be looking at them or the FCC is looking at them. I forget who. Let me play this because I said I would and you know me, I'm all about paying off the teases. Here is the German defense

[00:27:54] minister through an interpreter Boris Pistorius who took umbrage. What's the German word for umbrage? Probably something with way too many consonants and not enough vowels. But he um, he got up there at the Munich security conference and uh, had a response to J.D. Vance's earlier speech. I cannot just ignore what we heard before. I cannot not comment

[00:28:23] on the speech we heard by the U.S. vice president. We fight for your right to be against us. That is the motto, one of the mottos of the Bundeswehr and it stands for our democracy. This democracy that was just called into question by the U.S. vice president and not just the German democracy but Europe as a whole. He spoke of the annulment of democracy and

[00:28:53] if I understood him correctly, he compares the condition of Europe with the condition that prevails in some authoritarian regimes. ladies and gentlemen, this is not acceptable. Listen to this applause. This is not acceptable. This is not acceptable. I always feel like they're still clapping. It's not acceptable. I feel like you should read

[00:29:23] like the German lines in that in that voice, you know. That's kind of the point, dude. Like you saying it's not acceptable. It is acceptable. He's telling you something you don't want to hear, but that doesn't make it unacceptable. He's identifying a problem. He says a vociferous minority in their countries will not automatically be right and they cannot decide what truth is. It does not mean that anyone can say anything and democracy

[00:29:52] must be able to defend itself against extremists that try to destroy it. I am happy to live in Europe where this democracy is defended every day against its internal and external enemies. And therefore, I would like to explicitly contradict and oppose the impression that Vice President Vance suggested

[00:30:22] here that our democracies oppress and silence minorities. We not only know against whom we defend our countries, but also what we defend it for. It's for democracy, for freedom of opinion, for the rule of law, and the dignity of each and everyone, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, but were that true? Democracy must defend itself. That's what he said. What is he talking about? And what did

[00:30:52] J.D. Vance talk about? He's talking about censorship. You guys are censoring opposition voices. And this is why NPR frames it as, oh, he's defending the far right or whatever. He's not. He's saying you cannot, you should not suppress dissenting voices in your own society. You will not have a political mandate to govern if you do so. That's not what democracy is.

[00:31:22] Right? You have to allow people to have their voices heard in the public square. But in Europe, they believe, well, we can censor this stuff if it's offensive. We can censor this stuff if we believe that it is a threat to the democracy. Yeah. And then the world's stupidest reporter, Margaret Brennan, she weighs in on all of this and it is stupid. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:31:51] I could not do the show without your support. And the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.