Latest news with #Samson
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
This show hasn't been seen on a Melbourne stage for 40 years. Now it's back
OPERA Samson and Delilah ★★★ Melbourne Opera, Palais Theatre, June 1 Samson and Delilah is the quintessential grand opera – large scale, spectacular (with many choruses and two ballets) and requiring superb singers. Melbourne Opera's production – and music lovers should be grateful yet again for their vision and determination – unfortunately really had only the last. The staging was deeply underplayed – deliberately so, according to the director's program notes, to emphasise psychological aspects (budget constraints might have been relevant). For me, it didn't work. The sets were far too minimalist, the lighting not even that, though Rose Chong's costumes were a highlight. The stage was divided into three, with the singers in front, the orchestra behind – which considerably reduced its impact – and the chorus above and behind them. The outstanding contribution came from the principals, Deborah Humble and Rosario La Spina, and the chorus (which is always outstanding). La Spina's huge, sweet tenor was ideal for Samson, but the biggest moments belong to the mezzo Delilah, and Humble relished them: sensitive, seductive, superb. Simon Meadows, Jeremy Kleeman and Eddie Muliaumaseali'i were splendid in the minor roles, while conductor Raymond Lawrence was sympathetic to composer and singers. The opera, which Camille Saint-Saëns (himself quite familiar with marital problems) takes from the Old Testament, tells of the Israelite leader who is seduced and betrayed by the vengeful Philistine Delilah. First performed in 1877, it was slow to bloom because of its biblical theme, but became immensely popular worldwide. Loading For the shortcomings, director Suzanne Chaundy – a leading force in so many of the company's recent triumphs, especially its series of Wagner operas – must take chief responsibility. The production was almost introverted, especially the climax where the blinded Samson pulls down the temple of the Philistine god Dagon, killing thousands. The bacchanal would scarcely have offended a women's temperance union. When Delilah came on stage brandishing Samson's shorn locks (the secret of his strength, symbolising his vow to God), they looked more like a dead possum. Yet, despite imperfections, Melbourne's first Samson and Delilah in 40 years was a real pleasure.
The Age
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
This show hasn't been seen on a Melbourne stage for 40 years. Now it's back
OPERA Samson and Delilah ★★★ Melbourne Opera, Palais Theatre, June 1 Samson and Delilah is the quintessential grand opera – large scale, spectacular (with many choruses and two ballets) and requiring superb singers. Melbourne Opera's production – and music lovers should be grateful yet again for their vision and determination – unfortunately really had only the last. The staging was deeply underplayed – deliberately so, according to the director's program notes, to emphasise psychological aspects (budget constraints might have been relevant). For me, it didn't work. The sets were far too minimalist, the lighting not even that, though Rose Chong's costumes were a highlight. The stage was divided into three, with the singers in front, the orchestra behind – which considerably reduced its impact – and the chorus above and behind them. The outstanding contribution came from the principals, Deborah Humble and Rosario La Spina, and the chorus (which is always outstanding). La Spina's huge, sweet tenor was ideal for Samson, but the biggest moments belong to the mezzo Delilah, and Humble relished them: sensitive, seductive, superb. Simon Meadows, Jeremy Kleeman and Eddie Muliaumaseali'i were splendid in the minor roles, while conductor Raymond Lawrence was sympathetic to composer and singers. The opera, which Camille Saint-Saëns (himself quite familiar with marital problems) takes from the Old Testament, tells of the Israelite leader who is seduced and betrayed by the vengeful Philistine Delilah. First performed in 1877, it was slow to bloom because of its biblical theme, but became immensely popular worldwide. Loading For the shortcomings, director Suzanne Chaundy – a leading force in so many of the company's recent triumphs, especially its series of Wagner operas – must take chief responsibility. The production was almost introverted, especially the climax where the blinded Samson pulls down the temple of the Philistine god Dagon, killing thousands. The bacchanal would scarcely have offended a women's temperance union. When Delilah came on stage brandishing Samson's shorn locks (the secret of his strength, symbolising his vow to God), they looked more like a dead possum. Yet, despite imperfections, Melbourne's first Samson and Delilah in 40 years was a real pleasure.
Scroll.in
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
Long shunned as too explicit, an Indian music genre is rising from the margins
Lovelorn maidens, heartless dandies and coquettes, envy, betrayal, languor and heaving passion, all amidst a profusion of moonlight and jasmine. This is the dramatic, and rather medieval, universe of padams and javalis – intensely amorous love verses set in the Carnatic mode and a legacy of the devadasi music and dance traditions of the south. Mostly in Telugu, and written between the early 19th and early 20th century, the song texts of the javalis and padams are clearly an anachronism in our times – for the nayika is almost always long-suffering and the nayaka is invariably heartless. But these are also themes as old as the hills, of yearning, waiting and wanting, and the music remains eternally beautiful. Largely shunned for decades on dance and music platforms for their explicit content and social history, some of these songs were brought alive on May 18 by Bharatanatyam dancer Leela Samson accompanied by Carnatic vocalist Savita Narasimhan in Bengaluru. Ee Mohamu (this desire), as the event produced by Kishima Arts Foundation was aptly titled, showcased six songs of the genre. 'This search and happy discovery of rarer padams and javalis has been on for many years [for me],' said Samson, who embodied the callow young nayikas with moving ease and subtlety. Though padams and javalis are often spoken of together as one, they do have subtle variations. Padams tend to be slower and more reflective with more devotional underpinnings. Javalis, on the other hand, are more lively and lilting and their lyrics could border on the risque. The dramatis personae in both narratives are one or all of these three – the nayika, nayaka, and sakhi, that critical go-between and sounding board. Play Padams and javalis are set to specific ragas embellished with a lot of emotive minutiae to extract a lot of expressive rendition in both singing and dance. The one name that all musicians take with reverence for her artistry in rendering this music is T Brinda, a member of a hereditary artist clan that combined the best of the dance and music worlds. Her grandmother was the great Veena Dhanammal and she was a cousin of the legendary Balasaraswati. That the padam and javali receded to the margins in Bharatanatyam is a commentary on many things, including our history and politics. But what makes it creatively challenging, said Samson in a post-performance discussion, is the effort it takes to slow down to be in step with the stillness and pauses in the music. 'As a young dancer, a lot of our time goes into the varnam, keertanam, thillana – the nritya [footwork] takes up so much of our heart and soul,' she said. 'You are young and full of vigour when that is so challenging, all that kida-thaka-thom, and you want to stretch longer and jump higher. And so you shy away from this, speaking from the heart. Then, suddenly after 10 years of everybody appreciating your nritya, you ask yourself: are we using or misusing them [padams and javalis] only as fillers? What happened to these [songs]?' The challenge is equally hard for the vocalist. As Savita points out, the genre, especially padams, require tremendous breath control, malleability of voice, and the ability to hold the intensity of music without being aggressive. 'This is an inward-looking music and it does not allow you to gallop and it takes years to practise,' she said. 'In other forms, the sahityam [text] is set to a fixed meter and but in padams, everything is offbeat and you have to internalise where the phrases fall and how to pace the talam, which are themselves often rare ones.' The musicality of padams and javalis is singularly exquisite and, when they are danced to, they make for a heady and sensuous shadow play of the visual and the aural. Shifting mores Samson remembers, as a child, entering the world of padams at her alma mater, Kalakshetra. 'My very first padam was Kshetrayya's Bala vinave, very slow, beautiful, descriptive, such beauty of musicality and dance,' she told the audience at Sabha, a small performance space in southern Bengaluru. 'But to hold Tisra Triputa [taal], the gaps and space at that age was a struggle. But in the early years, you are taught a kai [hand, or set movements] and you did. It is only as you grow older that you start understanding. In fact, you are better able to play a younger nayika as a more mature dancer.' ''i' She remembers watching the great Mylapore Gowriamma in a class at Kalakshetra. She was frail and aged, one of the legends of the long-gone devadasi era. 'She would sit in our class, like a little bundle, and she had a pronounced squint, but if you ask her 'Gowri patti, show us this', her whole face would come to life and those eyes would do very beautiful [things] and before you could gather it, it was gone. It was as if some energy came from within her, small nuances.' With shifting views on gender and sexuality, javalis and padams, especially performed as dance, have had to deal with a lot more contentious issues. Who is all that voluptuousness intended for? Is it spiritual or carnal? Why in an age when women's agency is being celebrated should they eternally wait for a rogue lover? At the discussion that followed the dance, some of these questions were raised. But, at this point it might help to step back in time, more precisely two centuries ago, to when the genre grew. Padams predate javalis, and the names most commonly associated with them are two Telugu bhakti composers, Annamacharya and Kshetrayya. In a sense, they enjoy a firmer reputation for classicism than the sprightly javalis that teeter precariously into the 'light' music field. The origins of the javali and its meaning remain shrouded in mystery, say scholars. In his essay for the music journal Sruti titled Javalis: Jewels of the Dance Repertoire, musicologist Arudra says they were 'born in Travancore' in the early 19th-century court of Swati Thirunal, 'brought up in Mysore' and 'attained their fullness in Madras' before travelling elsewhere in the south. Others believe that its first home was the Mysore court. The meaning of the name javali itself is contested, says Arudra: interpretations include 'lewd song' in Kannada per an 1894 Kannada-English dictionary, 'half a song' or javadam in some other works on musicology, and javada in Telugu, meaning a colt of filly to indicate the playful nature of the style. One colonial writer disapprovingly spoke of javalis as 'songs of indelicate nature'. In his essay Salon to Cinema: The Distinctly Modern Life of the Telugu Javali, dance scholar Davesh Soneji points to the different 'fields of production' that separate the two forms: padams were the domain of saint composers working in centres of devotion like Tirupati, while 'javali composers (javalikartas) worked in the civic heart of the colonial city employed as Taluk clerks or post office workers'. The javali's journey through the modern times has been dynamic, the scholar points out, chronicling its transition: it crept into popular Parsi theatre-inspired Tamil dramas of the late 19th and early 20th century; lent itself to linguistic experiment as in the quirky My dear, come, varuvai i vela (come now, my dear) in a mishmash of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and English; and, once the devadasis were erased from our culturescape, made it to the movies such as in the song Amtalone Telavare from the Telugu film Muddu Bidda (1956). Play It was in the salons of the sought-after courtesans of Madras Presidency patronised by elite men that the javali peaked as a creative form in the early 20th century. Among those men was the superb composer and Dhanammal's patron, Dharmapuri Subbaraya Iyer, a clerk in the taluk office. The stories of their abiding relationship are legend – it is said that the outstanding javali Smara sundarāṅguni was composed by him for her as a gift when she was in dire straits. Performed by Samson at Sabha, it speaks of a rather uniquely progressive beau – considerate and supportive of the nayika's many talents. Once the devadasi tradition vanished under the combined onslaught of social outrage and legislation, javalis and padams became more or less outliers in the dance and song repertoire. In the following, more squeamish decades, the popular narrative was that the heavily sensuous content is to be read not as carnal love but as the soul's yearning to attain a higher plane. It is quite common for the nayaka in the song to be revealed to be a deity. Samson recalls the somewhat fraught differences between gurus and scholars on the interpretation of loaded words, and the struggle to pin down the direct meanings. Should it be 'come, sit by my side' or 'come, sit here on my bed'? But increasingly younger artists are not shying away from their literal meaning. Among them is vocalist Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath, whose guru was Vegavahini Vijayaraghavan, T Brinda's daughter and legatee of her powerful felicity with padams and javalis. 'We hear padams and javalis so rarely in concerts. But the role of sringara in them, is it something to shy [away] from? It is an important emotion, a transient one and it seeks representation [in the arts] in some way. The argument is that they are tough to render but we persevere with so many tough things in music, why not this?' There is another question that exercises a lot of young dancers and scholars. In this age of gender equity, what is the relevance of this art form? As dancer Lakshmi Gopalaswamy pointed out at the end of the event, young students want to know: 'Why should I dress up and wait for a guy? I dress for myself.' Samson's view on this falls uniquely between the conventional and the contemporary. 'These are metaphors, not necessarily about man or woman, though they can be,' she said. 'It is about the desire that lies at the root of everything in life, an aspiration, something we constantly want to achieve outside of ourselves. Dancers who say 'Oh, I am only into the abstract', then go and show angst, pain. But that too ultimately is this.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The State Department Published A Substack Manifesto On ‘Western Civilizational Heritage'
Everyone has a newsletter now, even the United States Department of State. And, since taking to Substack in late April, the agency tasked with articulating and representing America's foreign policy interests on the world stage has published a manifesto of sorts touting the need for this country and Europe to 'recommit to our Western heritage.' The piece in question was titled 'The Need For Civilizational Allies In Europe.' It was published on Tuesday and authored by Samuel Samson, a senior adviser in the department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Among other things, Samson argued there is 'an aggressive campaign against Western civilization itself' that includes 'digital censorship, mass migration, [and] restrictions on religious freedom.' 'On both sides of the Atlantic, we must preserve the goods of our common culture, ensuring that Western civilization remains a source of virtue, freedom, and human flourishing for generations to come,' Samson wrote. The Substack post made headlines because it came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new wave of visa restrictions on Chinese students and foreigners deemed to be 'complicit in censoring Americans.' Yet the post was important not just because it was another salvo in President Trump and the right's fight against content moderation and alleged censorship. Samson's rhetoric arguing against 'mass migration' and in favor of 'Western heritage' sharply echoes the ideology of many extremist and even white nationalist groups. A 'backgrounder' published by the Anti Defamation League in 2020 laid out how figures involved in 'alt right' politics tend to 'avoid explicit white supremacist references' and instead 'use terms like 'culture' as substitutes for more divisive terms such as 'race,' and promote 'Western Civilization' as a code word for white culture or identity.' That rhetoric was used for the promotion of the 2017 Charlottesville rally, which included multiple neo-Nazi groups. Affiliated organizations like the explicitly pro-Trump antisemitic group National Justice Party, which has a podcast named for the Holocaust, have used the term. The Proud Boys, a militant group whose leadership has included four people charged with seditious conspiracy related to the January 6 attack before being pardoned by President Trump, also describe themselves as focused on 'Western Chauvinism.' Samson's piece also waded into European politics and similarly promoted ultranationalist perspectives. He defended a far-right party and candidate — Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party and French National Rally leader Marine Le Pen — and suggested they have faced undue censorship. German intelligence has labeled AfD as extremist for suggesting Muslim immigrants are not equal. Candidates promoted by Le Pen and her party have made racist comments and engaged in Holocaust denial. TPM reached out to the State Department on Thursday to ask about the essay and the fact it echoes some of this white nationalist rhetoric. A spokesperson asked us to 'extend' our deadline for comment until Friday, but did not reply to subsequent emails. 'Alt right' and white supremacist-adjacent ideals promoting 'western civilization,' denunciations of immigration as a threat to culture, and links with far-right figures in Europe have all been a feature of the second Trump administration. In March, Trump signed an executive order aimed at stopping federally funded historical sites, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture and other parts of the Smithsonian Institution, from promoting what it described as 'divisive, race-centered ideology' rather than 'Western values.' Vice President J.D. Vance also touched on these themes in a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation in April. 'I think that what we've learned over the last few months is that the American people, and I think western peoples, are a hell of a lot more resilient than our elites give them credit for,' he said, later adding, 'I think if we speak the truth, if we refuse to live by lies, then I think we can redeliver on the promise of Western civilization.' And earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to Germany's designation of AfD as an extremist group as 'tryanny in disguise.' Rubio and his State Department have also been at the forefront of Trump's efforts to curb immigration — and have continually discussed this in terms that echo those of the American 'alt right' and European ultranationalists. On Thursday, the State Department notified Congress about plans for a sweeping reorganization that would include cutting jobs, reworking the agency's refugee bureau into a 'Remigration' office aimed at returning immigrants to their home countries, and prioritizing 'Western values' at its human rights bureau. Samson, the author of the State Department's Substack manifesto, is representative of a wave of young activists and staffers who have gravitated towards these nationalist perspectives. His career and activism prior to joining the government was boosted and guided by conservative groups that are promoting these ideas. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Samson spent over two years at 'American Moment,' a nonprofit whose major funders include the Conservative Partnership Institute, an organization that was deeply involved in Trump's attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss. 'American Moment,' which was founded in 2021, is designed to 'identify, educate, and credential young Americans who will implement public policy.' The group's priorities include restricting immigration and promoting traditional values in 'the West.' Before writing for the State Department on Substack, Samson published pieces for a variety of conservative publications, including a 2022 article for The Federalist that declared, 'the modern West is itself a culture looking down.' 'Our culture is dominated by passions, of pursuit for the sake of good feelings and satisfaction,' Samson wrote. 'Activity is reduced to binge streaming, social media scrolling, face stuffing, and chronic porn watching.' Samson has locked his page on the site formerly known as Twitter. The Internet Archive shows that he maintained a presence on the site, including penning poems that criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's efforts to solicit international aid for his country's war with Russia. Samson graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2021. Coverage from the school's Daily Texan newspaper indicates he spent his college years involved in the Young Conservatives of Texas, the Zionist Organization of America, and working as a legislative staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). He also participated in a 2019 event with conservative commentator Steven Crowder where, according to the paper, Samson argued in front of other students that 'there are only two genders.' In multiple articles published by the college paper, Samson suggested he faced 'harassment' on campus for his conservative views. The young man who would go on to publish arguments against migration also made an interesting early comment about his pathway to right-wing politics. In a 2018 interview in which he endorsed Cruz's re-election bid that year, Samson said his mother was an immigrant who went through the naturalization process. 'She worked her butt off wanting to come to this country, and I think that's a microcosm of why I'm a conservative,' Samson said.
CNBC
5 days ago
- Politics
- CNBC
Trump administration emerges as a staunch defender of Germany's far-right AfD
President Donald Trump's administration has emerged as a staunch defender of Alternative for Germany, a political party with Nazi echoes that has risen in popularity — and that German intelligence officials recently classified as a "proven right-wing extremist organization." The party is known by its German initialism, AfD, and it has included leaders who have embraced old Nazi slogans and minimized the atrocities of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have criticized the German government's efforts to isolate and investigate AfD, arguing that such actions amount to undemocratic persecution of a rival political group. "It's one thing to say that a particular set of views is gross ... or somehow outside the Overton window, outside the bounds of reasonable discourse," Vance said in an interview last week in Rome, where he attended Pope Leo XIV's inaugural Mass. "I think that it is very, very dangerous to use the neutral institutions of state — the military, the police forces ... the intel services — to try to delegitimize another competing political party. I think that's especially true when that political party just got second in an election and is, depending on which poll you believe, either the [most] popular or the second-most popular party." Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump confidant who has wielded significant White House power, has gone further than Vance and Rubio, having campaigned with AfD ahead of elections in February, when the party finished in second place and further established its popularity. "Only the AfD can save Germany," Musk posted on X, his social media site, in December. The Rubio-led State Department reinforced the Trump administration's line Tuesday. In a post on Substack, Samuel Samson, a senior adviser in the department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, wrote that the German government "has established elaborate systems to monitor and censor online speech under the guise of combating disinformation and preventing offense." Samson specifically cited the recent decision to label AfD as extremist. He also raised concerns about the treatment of far-right parties and leaders in other European countries, including Marine Le Pen, whose recent embezzlement conviction in France could prevent her from running for president in a 2027 race she had been favored to win. "Americans are familiar with these tactics. Indeed, a similar strategy of censorship, demonization, and bureaucratic weaponization was utilized against President Trump and his supporters," Samson wrote. "What this reveals is that the global liberal project is not enabling the flourishing of democracy. Rather, it is trampling democracy, and Western heritage along with it, in the name of a decadent governing class afraid of its own people." Samson added that "Europe's democratic backsliding not only impacts European citizens but increasingly affects American security and economic ties, along with the free speech rights of American citizens and companies." "Our hope," he continued, "is that both Europe and the United States can recommit to our Western heritage, and that European nations will end the weaponization of government against those seeking to defend it." Vance emphasized similar themes in a speech in February at the Munich Security Conference, where he chastised German leaders for, among other things, refusing to include AfD in the country's governing coalition despite its electoral gains. While he was in Germany, Vance met with Friedrich Merz, now the chancellor, and with Alice Weidel, a co-chair of the AfD. An AfD spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. The party has long denied the charge that it is an extremist group, and it sued Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution over the intelligence agency's recent classification. A spokesperson for the agency, citing the lawsuit, declined to comment. During last week's interview, Vance emphasized that he has not endorsed AfD or encouraged Germans to support it. He described his and Rubio's advocacy as a matter of democratic principles. Trump's first campaign for president in 2016 fed on chants by his supporters to "lock her up!" — a reference to his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, who had not been charged with any crime. More recently, he and his allies accused former President Joe Biden, who beat Trump in his 2020 re-election bid, of weaponizing the Justice Department against Trump and other Republicans. The Trump administration launched an investigation this month of former FBI Director James Comey, a Trump critic who had shared on social media a photo of seashells arranged to spell out "8647." Trump allies interpreted the message as an assassination threat, noting that "86" can be a slang term for getting rid of something and that Trump is the 47th president. Trump's director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has called for Comey to be imprisoned over the post. But the number 86 does not always have violent connotations; it's use in the hospitality industry can refer to removing or refusing service to a customer. Asked how his and Rubio's concerns square with such Trump administration actions and rhetoric, Vance argued that there is a "reasonable" question about whether Comey had advocated for Trump's assassination. "I'm a pretty big believer in free speech," Vance said. "But I don't think that saying you should kill Donald Trump is an acceptable part of public debate. Everybody's going to draw their line. I think where I draw the line is encouraging violence against political opponents. If there's a determination that Comey encouraged violence against a political opponent, then that's a problem. And if there's a determination that he didn't, then that's a different question." While Vance has not endorsed AfD, he described a pro-AfD piece Musk wrote in December as "interesting." "Also interesting; American media slanders AfD as Nazi-lite," Vance wrote in his Jan. 2 social media post that called attention to Musk's piece. "But AfD is most popular in the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis." AfD was founded in 2013, its early messaging geared toward anti-European Union voters. In subsequent years, the party became known for its strident anti-immigrant rhetoric. In 2017, an AfD ad criticized as Islamophobic asked: "Burkas? We prefer bikinis." Another, featuring the image of a pregnant woman, asked: "New Germans? We'll make them ourselves." The party has grown in popularity, coinciding with a rise of right-wing voter sentiment across the United States and Europe. Last year, AfD became the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since the Nazis. Meanwhile, links and comparisons between AfD and the Nazis have been inescapable. At an AfD rally in 2017, attendees chanted that they would "build a subway" to Auschwitz for their political opponents. A founding AfD member, Alexander Gauland, once described the Nazi era as a mere "speck" of bird excrement in German history. A party leader, Björne Höcke, has twice been found guilty by a German court of purposefully employing Nazi rhetoric. (He has appealed the rulings.) Another AfD politician, Maximilian Krah, resigned his party leadership post under pressure and suspended campaign activities last year after he said the SS, the Nazis' main paramilitary force, were "not all criminals." When Musk appeared virtually at an AfD campaign event in January, he leaned into a talking point consistent with the party's desire to move beyond the guilt over Nazi-era atrocities, lamenting that "there is too much focus on past guilt." The same week, Musk faced criticism after he offered a gesture many found similar to a Nazi salute at a Trump rally in Washington. In its designation of AfD as an extremist organization on May 2, the German intelligence agency asserted that the party "aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society." AfD also does not consider German nationals with histories of migration from Muslim countries as equal to German people, the agency added at the time. The report drew a quick rebuke from Rubio, who is also Trump's national security adviser. "Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition," Rubio wrote on X. "That's not democracy — it's tyranny in disguise." Vance then piggybacked on Rubio's post with a Cold War analogy. "The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it," he wrote. "The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt — not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment." Vance contended in last week's interview that holding down a rival political party because of its beliefs allows its beliefs to "take on an almost mystical power" by removing them from the public dialogue. "I don't like Nazism, and I don't like people who are sympathetic with Nazis," Vance said. "But I think the way to beat back against it is to debate it and defeat it and not believe that you can, kind of, like, bury this thing underground, because you can't."
