On Thursday’s Morning Joe, Ukrainian president Zelensky’s speech to Congress stirred Joe Scarborough into a burst of pride and advocacy for “Western civilization,” which must sound most offensive to the Systemic Racism folks in the MSNBC audience.
Will the woke mob be calling for the cancellation of Joe Scarborough? In the course of that first half-hour, Scarborough offended the CRT cabal repeatedly:
1. Described himself as an “Anglophile.” A fan of England, with its atrocious history of colonialism?
2. Revealed that he reveres and takes inspiration from the speeches of Winston Churchill. That execrable imperialist?
3. And in the most egregious transgressions of all, extolled “Western Civilization”—and even made the case for . . . American exceptionalism! Oh, the horror!
Scarborough keyed off an Atlantic column by David Frum, a guest on the show, who had written about our support for Ukraine:
“What the Western world is getting in return for its aid is a powerful recommitment to its own best self. We didn’t believe the Ukrainians could do it, in part because we didn’t believe we could do it. But they did. And so did we. And we look now at both Ukraine and ourselves in new ways.”
That led Scarborough to say to those who doubted that Donald Trump would ultimately be obliged to leave the White House:
“You don’t understand the essence of America, and let me expand that out. You don’t understand the essence of Western Civilization. Yes, I just said it. Western civilization. Like all civilizations, terrible sins in our background that we should confront every day to become a better people.
“But let’s remember we, just we as a nation, we Americans, we have fed and freed more people than any country in the history of this planet. And we have done it with our most steadfast allies. And Britain and across them, and France, across the West. And you are right! That’s something that we forget too easily in these days of podcasts, and cable news shows, and screeching editorials, and screeching social media posts. We still, we still are resolved to spread freedom across the globe. And to help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.”
Note that in addition to praising Western Civilization, Scarborough made the case that we Americans, on our own, “have fed and freed more people than any country in the history of this planet.” Sounds suspiciously like a case for American exceptionalism!
There was some unintentional humor on Scarborough’s part. He decried the current age of “cable news shows, and screeching editorials, and screeching social media posts.” If there’s a show and a host that regularly offer up table-pounding screeching, it is, as we have documented over the years, Morning Joe and . . . Joe Scarborough.
Note: while it took some guts for Scarborough to speak in defense of Western Civilization, Joe did try to salvage some liberal street cred by adding, “like all civilizations, terrible sins in our background that we should confront every day.”
But will Scarborough’s confession of Western sin be enough to appease the woke mob?
On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough extolling “Western Civilization” was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual, E*Trade, and Jeep.
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
12/22/22
6:11 am ETJOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, I’ve mentioned it before on this show, and I will say this with absolutely no, with no reticence I say this. During the darkest moments of 2017 and 2018, when I thought our backs were against the wall, and asked whether we would, this democracy would survive, I would listen to Churchill at night as I was going to bed. And I would listen to his speeches.
And I sat there thinking, but there’s just such an immediacy there, and I can’t imagine what it must have been like. Well, you can imagine it now, because Zelenskyy actually, and Zelenskyy’s wife, and Zelenskyy’s family and the Ukrainian people are actually in just as harrowing a position, if not more.
And the bravery, from that very first night, when they went out in the streets of Ukraine, and they took that video and put it up on Instagram, it’s been nothing short of extraordinary.
And we would hope, looking at their courage, that it would reflect back on us as a people, too, and remind us of all the things that we have done as a people together through the years. Whether it was fighting the Nazis, fighting the Communists. And this is something that David touched on in his latest piece. Zelenskyy recalled us to ourselves, and this is what David wrote [emphasis added]:
“Maybe our ideals were not so out of date. Maybe our institutions were not so broken. Maybe the people the Ukrainians needed us to be, maybe those were the people we could be again.
“What the Western world is getting in return for its aid is a powerful recommitment to its own best self. We didn’t believe the Ukrainians could do it, in part because we didn’t believe we could do it. But they did. And so did we. And we now look at both Ukraine and ourselves in new ways.
“The extremists and conspiracists and populists, the authoritarians and kleptocrats and theocrats who have all so much ascendancy in recent years, they do not speak for us. Sometimes Americans, forget that.”
And Richard, I have spent my adult life. David, let me go to you first, and then Richard. David, I’ve spent my adult life. I met you as a young man when I first got to Washington. I met you one of the first days I got into Washington, almost 30 years ago, and we had a talk.
Since that time, I have spent my adult life telling Americans it’s going to be okay. Madisonian democracy will see us through. Our court system will see us through. Our military will see us through.
How many people told me, Donald Trump would never leave the White House, and I had to say you, just don’t know the men and women of the United States military. And you don’t know people in the Secret Service, do you? Bad apples, yeah, there’re some bad apples.
But you don’t understand the essence of America, and let me expand that out. You don’t understand the essence of Western Civilization. Yes, I just said it. Western civilization. Like all civilizations, terrible sins in our background that we should confront every day to become a better people.
But let’s remember we, just we as a nation, we Americans, we have fed and freed more people than any country in the history of this planet. And we have done it with our most steadfast allies. And Britain and across them, and France, across the West. And you are right! That’s something that we forget too easily in these days of podcasts, and cable news shows, and screeching editorials, and screeching social media posts. We still, we still are resolved to spread freedom across the globe. And to help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.