President Macron's Speech to Congress: Reminding the USA of Its Traditions

President Macron and President Trump

In his recent speech to a joint session of Congress, French President Emmanuel Macron reviewed the long history of  French-American cooperation. He reminded Congress about the democratic values that the United States has long championed. This leads us to a question: does the American president still lead the free world? Or have the leaders of France and Germany now taken that leadership from us? Not because they want it, but because American leaders have abandoned their traditions?

Why is tradition good? Let us suppose there are three ways to make a decision: you can make a decision at random (for example, by throwing dice or flipping a coin), you can make a decision by giving it careful thought, or you can rely on time-tested tradition. (This explanation is inspired by Boyd and Richerson's outstanding book, Culture and the Evolutionary Process.)

All of these methods have their place. As the great conservative writer Richard Weaver pointed out in his book The Ethics of Rhetoric, liberals and radicals tend to make decisions by looking at circumstances and cause-and-effect, while conservatives look to fundamental principles and definitions. In other words, to make things simple, liberals like to think things through, while conservatives like to rely on things that are timeless.

Tradition is a very good way to make many decisions. No test is more powerful, or less forgiving, than the test of time. The problem is that many conservatives today become confused about what tradition is. All too often, conservatives invent traditions that are not real. I published an article a few years ago pointing out that the gun control debate has been influenced by a collection of fake Founding Fathers quotations, in which some conservatives pretend that the nation's Founders advocated a radical pro-gun position. Since the Founders did not, the only way to maintain this position is to misrepresent what they said. Similarly, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia, who was motivated by his theory of originalism but poorly informed about the Constitution's actual origins, has been accused of misrepresenting the traditional relationship between the president and federal prosecutors. When we forget our traditions, falsehoods fill the void.

Macron reviewed our traditions. So, as I pointed out yesterday, President Macron carefully reviewed the long history of democratic values, values that the United States has been spreading across the world for centuries. Here are some examples of what he said:

"The American and French people have had a rendezvous with freedom."

"Freedom is a call to think and to love. It is a call to our will. That is why in times of peace, France and the United States were able to forge unbreakable bonds from the grips of painful memories."

Macron warned: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We pass it to our children; it must be fought for, protected, handed on for them to do the same. This is an urgent reminder, indeed, because now, going beyond our bilateral ties, beyond our very special relationship, Europe and the United States must face together the global challenges of the century. And we cannot take for granted our history. At the core--we have to succeed, facing these challenges, and we cannot succeed by forfeiting our principles and our history." Was he warning about the authoritarianism of the far right, a far right that often supports President Trump?

Macron pointed out that Civil Rights for the races and equal rights for women have long-standing traditions in both France and the United States, and must not be forsaken. He reminded Congress that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s bust stood in the Capitol Rotunda.

Implicitly rejecting President Donald Trump's "America First" philosophy, Macron said that "Today, the international community needs to step up our game and build the 21st century world order based on the perennial principles we established together after World War II: the rule of law. Fundamental values which we secured peace for 70 years ago are now questioned by urgent issues that require joint action."

Macron left conservatives befuddled. As I noted in my last post, conservatives have reacted in a way that has been muted or controversial. After a flurry of tweets about President's Macron's state visit, President Trump's Twitter feed has gone silent about Macron's speech. Why? 

Congress is dominated by conservatives today, and Macron spoke entirely for conservative principles. Yet, American conservatives did not seem to like his speech. Why not?

First, Macron opposed American unilateralism, warned of the dangers of climate change ("Let us face it. There is no planet B"), supported Civil Rights, and spoke in favor of the international order that the United States created after World War II. Mr. Trump and his allies, for the most part, oppose all of these.

Second, however, Macron's arguments were almost unassailable from a conservative viewpoint. That is his arguments arose entirely from tradition. Unlike a more liberal speaker, Macron, who describes himself as a centrist, did not cite facts and figures, expert opinion, scientific studies, cause and effect, or any other of the sorts of policy-oriented arguments that liberals like to make. Instead, he cited the tradition of time-tested principles. A debater would say that he turned the tables on his opponents. Conservatives cannot attack his principles, which were entirely conservative. Conservatives had a great deal of trouble attacking Macron's conclusions, which inescapably arose from his principles. This leaves conservatives only a few choices: they could attack him personally, which seems unwise, or they could sputter in indignation, which seems pointless, or they could ignore him. For the most part, they seem to ignore him.

Can you ignore truth and still be a leader? I do not think so. President Macron gave the United States' leaders a lot to think about. When an "America First" philosophy abandons American leadership, President Macron briefly took over the leadership of the free world, but, doing so he was implicitly asking the United States to regain its leadership role.

Turning the tables on your opponent is a very powerful debate technique. Since conservatives cannot attack their own principles, President Macron's appeal carried great power.

P.S.: Much was made of President Trump dusting a bit of imaginary dandruff from President Macron's jacket. Was this an attempt to establish dominance, to see which of them was the alpha male? If so, Macron's speech settled the issue in his own favor. Content beats form every time. 

P.P.S. President Macron spoke fluently in English, which is his second (third? fourth?) language. Very impressive. 

P.P.S. President Trump's initiatives in Korea would seem to be a good rebuttal to Macron's message. Yet he has not linked the two. Why no? I have no idea.


 Image: White House Flickr