President Macron's Speech to Congress: How to Unite the People of Planet A

White House photo, Macron visit

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to a joint session of Congress on April 26, 2018 as part of his state visit to the United States. This was considered to be the first major state visit under President Donald Trump's administration.

President Macron, usually considered to be a centrist, mastered the occasion. His speech pointedly refuted the main principles upon which President Trump had established his political career: Macron praised multilateralism, meaning that the nations must work together. He warned of the hazards of climate change, and cautioned that authoritarianism posed danger to the world, which was particularly important since some authorities believe that Mr. Trump is leading the United States toward an authoritarian attitude. Macron supported the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear weapons deal, both of which Mr. Trump strongly opposes.

But Macron's refutation was founded on unity, shared values, and respect, not on anger or resentment, which made it all the more powerful. American politics have broken down to name-calling contests, and the public has trouble figuring out who is right. Instead, Macron took the high road.

There are three ways to think about this speech. In this post, I'll show how Macron established his friendship with the United States, which he used as a springboard to attack the Trump administration's policies. In later posts, I'll show how he used reason to attack unreasoning attitudes, and then how he re-established dominance.

Trump tweets about Macron visit

So, first, let us look at how Macron established unity, a sense of unity that made his speech difficult to refute.

To begin, he took advantage of Trump's unifying publicity before the speech. Trump had published two gushing Twitter tweets about the state visit. The White House website published an equally effusive article about the French-American friendship (see picture above).

Macron devoted much of his speech to reinforcing the relationship between the two nations, and the great sense that they owe much to one another: he called the halls of Congress "the sanctuary of democracy." He continued that, "from the very beginning, we have fought shoulder to shoulder in many battles." He talked about his pride when he stood in front of a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette. Like other good ceremonial speakers, he talked about our "common humanity," and, more importantly, the long history of shared values: "our two nations are rooted in the same soil, grounded in the same ideals of the American and French revolutions." He talked specifically about the values that the two nation shared: "liberty, tolerance, and equal rights."

Continuing, Macron praised President Trump, and praises him in such a way as to imply that he and Mr. Trump shared the same values: "Today, President Trump's decision to offer France his first state visit to Washington has resonance because it represents the continuation of a shared history and a troubled world." He also thanked Speaker Paul Ryan. "I want you to know how much I appreciate this unique gesture, thank you. The strength of our bonds is the source of our shared ideals. This is what united us in the struggle against imperialism during the First World War, then in the fight against Nazism during the Second World War. This is what united us again during the era of the Stalinist threats, and now we lean on that strength to fight against terrorist groups."

In other words, Macron built on shared values and assumed that those values still mean something today, while reminding the members of Congress about what the United States had meant to the free world throughout history.

Once he established that point, he was in a position to urge the United States to continue to live by those values. It was almost a matter of shaming (but shaming very gently) President Trump and his supporters into returning to America's traditions. For example, he warned that "we are living in a time of anger and fear because of these current global threats. But . . . You can play with fear and anger for a time, but they do not construct anything. Anger only freezes and weakens us."

Macron offered a choice: "Let me say we had two possible ways ahead. We can choose isolationism, withdrawal, and nationalism. This is an option. It can be tempting to us as a temporary remedy to our fears. But closing the door to the world will not stop the evolution of the world." He tied the rejection of nationalism back to the values that the United States and France have long shared: "I believe in these rights and values I believe that against ignorance we have education. Against inequalities, development. Against cynicism, trust and good faith. Against fanaticism, culture. Against disease, medicine. Against the threats to the planet, science." He cautioned that: "We're killing our planet. Let us face it. There is no Planet B."

Macron spoke for unity, advocated values that led to policies, and gently warned the United States to take the noble path. He did so without criticism, without rancor, and without partisanship. As conservative columnist Marc Thiessen, who does not support Mr. Trump, writes, the Democrats could learn much from Macron's high-minded approach.

Many of us suspect that the Trump administration, in its quest for patriotism, has abandoned what made America great. Does it take a speech from a foreign leader to remind us?

Predictably, Democrats and mainstream media pundits praised Macron's speech. Many conservatives ignored it. Republican Thomas Massie misquoted it, claiming that Macron favored militarism, not multilateralism, and refused to back down when he was corrected, although he later "clarified" his tweet. The Boston Herald complained that CNN's reporting of Macron's speech was biased against Mr. Trump. My next post will explain that conservatives reacted as they did because Macron adopted their own premise--tradition--and used it against them.