On Thursday night's episode of MSNBC's All In, host Chris Hayes spent the opening segment of his show trying to downplay the threat Al-Qaeda posed to the United States and the world in an attempt to make the case that the threat to the global order is made by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Hayes also suggested that former President Donald Trump is a threat to democracy just like Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungary President Viktor Urban, and the "Nationalist-Populist forces that push for Brexit."
Hayes started off his monologue making some sense, but like always he eventually gets carried away: "if you step back from all the day-to-day devastation happening in Ukraine, it is impossible to not see this as a pivotal moment in history. This is the first time in the 30 some years since the end of the Cold War that we've come to think of as the global order is being utterly transformed" Hayes noted.
He took his viewers through American history after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union and remarked how "former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, became independent practically overnight. It signaled a massive shift towards freedom and towards democracy and it began an era the decade between 1991 and 2001 when liberal democracy was largely uncontested peak."
The MSNBC host noted how after World War II and during the Cold War, "the main challenge politically, militarily, and ideologically was to the liberal capitalist democracy, came from communism." And after the Cold War ended there was a "palpable sense of drift, decadence, by the late 1990s. No great struggle to challenge our way of living." That all changed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Hayes bemoaned the overreaction to 9/11 and accused former President George W. Bush of attempting "to frame those attacks and the war on terror that ensued as a great apocal defining clash of civilizations. An existential battle for democracy and liberty." He continued attacking former President Bush and conservatives for attempting to keep America safe after 9/11:
Conservatives and the Bush administration massively overinflated the importance of Al-Qaeda and, fundamentally, the ideological challenge they posed. It was insane, frankly, to alter our lives the way we did to divert the kind of resources we diverted to fighting them. We spent trillions of dollars, lost thousands of Americans, not to mention tens of hundreds of thousands of Afghan Iraqi lives. It is sickening to think about in those stark terms. And all these people were clearly craving the grand ideological battle of World War II and then subsequently the Cold War. (...) In retrospect, it is clear the fight against Al-Qaeda was not an era-defining worldwide battle for hearts and minds. Wasn’t a fundamental challenge to the global order or to liberal democracy as we know it. And that experience, that falls rush to frame things, as a kind of civilizational battle, has made me very skeptical that it's the sort of framework to understanding global affairs, as a battle for freedom versus tyranny.
Instead, Hayes believes we are living in the type of dangerous moment he claims conservatives thought we were living in after 9/11. "What we have seen over the last several years is the move towards liberal democracy and openness between nations, backsliding" Hayes fretted. "We've seen it in Europe with the rise of Hungary's Viktor Orban who describes himself proudly as an illiberal Democrat, and the United Kingdom with the Nationalist-Populist forces that push for Brexit."
Then, of course, he named former President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as the last two threats to democracy: "it's been happening right here at home, Donald Trump, frankly, an aspiring authoritarian, who admires authoritarians and tried to overturn a free and fair election."
This segment of Chris Hayes downplaying the threat of Al-Qaeda to launch a broadside attack at Donald Trump was made possible by Infiniti, Dove & Mercedes-Benz. Their information is linked so you can let them know about the kind of content they fund.
To read the relevant transcript click “expand”:
MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes
3/24/2022
8:02:05 p.m. EasternCHRIS HAYES: If you step back from all the day-to-day devastation happening in Ukraine, it is impossible to not see this as a pivotal moment in history. This is the first time in the 30 some years since the end of the Cold War that we've come to think of as the global order is being utterly transformed. I was ten years old when the Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989. The beginning of the end of communism in eastern Europe. I still remember being on summer break when the failed Soviet coup happened in 1991. The last gasp of the Soviet Communist Party.
(...)
HAYES: That coup was defeated in a matter of days. The Communist Party collapsed. And the Soviet Union dissolved within months. Former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, became independent practically overnight. It signaled a massive shift towards freedom and towards democracy and it began an era the decade between 1991 and 2001 when liberal democracy was largely uncontested peak.
(...)
HAYES: Of course, after the Nazis were defeated in World War II, the main challenge politically, militarily, and ideologically was to the liberal capitalist democracy, came from communism, headquartered in Russia. And the battle between these two models between liberal democracy, capitalist democracy, and communism, through the Cold War went on to determine the global order for over 30 years. 40 years. That fight defined our world for decades. But as Fukuyama says, with the fall of communism, there was no longer a fundamental ideological challenge to the supremacy of liberal democracy. And so there was to many a kind of palpable sense of drift, decadence, by the late 1990s. No great struggle to challenge our way of living, And then, of course, something happened. September 11th happened. And there was a rush, almost immediately, and I remember it even on the day itself, to frame those attacks and the war on terror that ensued as a great apocal defining clash of civilizations. An existential battle for democracy and liberty.
[cuts to video]
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. This is the world's fight. This is civilization's fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance, and freedom.
VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: We have just completed a century in which militant ideologies were thrown back by the forces of freedom and democracy. We face that kind of threat once again tonight. And once again we will prevail.
SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL: This was an attack against civilization, civilization must respond.
[cuts back to live]
HAYES: That mindset was dominant. Even hegemonic. It continued for years. In fact, in 2004, then-Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, faced a ton of backlash for how he described what he thought it would take for Americans to feel safe again. He said, quote, “we have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance. As a former law enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it. organized crime to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life.”
But ultimately, I have to say and I felt this way at the time, but really feel it now that knowing what we know now, John Kerry was right. Conservatives and the Bush administration massively overinflated the importance of Al-Qaeda and, fundamentally, the ideological challenge they posed. It was insane, frankly, to alter our lives the way we did to divert the kind of resources we diverted to fighting them. We spent trillions of dollars, lost thousands of Americans, not to mention tens of hundreds of thousands of Afghan Iraqi lives. It is sickening to think about in those stark terms. And all these people were clearly craving the grand ideological battle of World War II and then subsequently the cold war. They sunk their teeth into this new fight, even though they were mistaken, completely, about its scope. In retrospect, it is clear the fight against Al-Qaeda was not an era-defining worldwide battle for hearts and minds. Wasn’t a fundamental challenge to the global order or to liberal democracy as we know it. And that experience, that falls rush to frame things, as a kind of civilizational battle, has made me very skeptical that it's the sort of framework to understanding global affairs, as a battle for freedom versus tyranny.
But I have to say, now, I think we have arrived at the kind of apocal moment that people thought 9/11 was. And it is closing the chapter on the kind of world order that Francis Fukuyama identified. The end of history after the end of the Cold War, liberal democracy ascended at its peak. What we have seen over the last several years is the move towards liberal democracy and openness between nations, backsliding. We've seen it in Europe with the rise of Hungary's Viktor Orban who describes himself proudly as an illiberal Democrat, and the United Kingdom with the Nationalist-Populist forces that push for Brexit. Of course, it's been happening right here at home, Donald Trump, frankly, an aspiring authoritarian, who admires authoritarians and tried to overturn a free and fair election. Still trying to do it and of course, in Putin's Russia, where his fascist ideology and wounded national pride has turned into a brutal assault on the battlefield.
