only seven things that your kids need to hear. but why do i bring this up? why do i give parenting advice on the 14th hour of morning joe this morning? i tell you what, because, it s because it s critical of what we re seeing in russia. this is a class of civilizations, a clash of authoritarianism versus western democracy. we hear people chirping about western democracy s failures. that s all we ever here. it reminds me of jfk saying democracy, for all of its failings, has never had to put a wall up to keep its people in. we see this divide in stark terms with the story this morning not just between russia and the united states of america, the most powerful, the strongest militarily, the strongest economically, the strong eest culturally, but we re seeing it now between putin s authoritarian regime and ukraine. it s striking. that s why they fight.
there s a constant information. jim garrity writing the national review about how brittle autocracies are. as brittle as they are, democracies are that flexible, in part, because we fight each other. hitler underestimated us. he paid for it. japan underestimated it, paid for it. osama bin laden underestimated us, paid for it. vladimir putin just the latest in the long line of tyrants to underestimate not only the united states of america, but western democracy. can you explain? people make that mistake all the time. you know, you know and mika s dad knew firsthand the number of people in 1940 who were saying, it s useless for the united states and canada and england to try to fight nazi germany and the imperial japanese, because they have the benefit of being a dictatorship. they can tell their people to fight at a moment s notice. one person can do the strategy,