Nice try, Mike Pence
Mike Pence’s recent trip to Ireland was, rather notably, a political disaster. The White House insisted that he stay at a Trump property over 140 miles from Dublin, where he met with the Irish prime minister, drawing obvious criticism from many as yet another example of the Trump administration finding ways to increase Trump’s personal wealth.
Pence, as The Irish Times so aptly put it, “shat on the new carpet in Ireland’s spare room.” In short, his speech started with ingratiating comments about Ireland and quickly devolved into a tactless Brexit advertisement. One of the biggest issues in the whole Brexit catastrophe concerns what’s been dubbed the “backstop,” or the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the sovereign nation of Ireland, which is a keen member of the EU. This, in conjunction with the historic tensions and bloody fighting between the Irelands, makes the issue very sensitive to the rather anti-Brexit Irish.
Why would Pence do this other than because he’s an intolerable jackass? Disturbingly, it’s because he’s intent on weakening the western alliance just as much as Trump or Putin.
The ties between the 2016 election and Brexit are uncanny. Brexit was promoted by Russian efforts in basically the same way Trump was. The Russians’ broad intentions were the same in both campaigns: sow doubt, discord, and weaken in every possible way the social and moral fabric that holds together the western alliance. Given the amount of chaos we endure on a daily basis because of these two events they interfered with, it pains me to say they succeeded.
Trump and Pence pushing Brexit is a philosophical proxy for pushing the Russian agenda of weakening the world order established after World War 2. Trump’s most memorable comments at the G7 summit held in Biarritz late last month reinforce this notion — he repeatedly requested to other members that they re-invite Putin to the G7, said that Putin “outsmarted” President Obama, and complementing Putin.
We should all be questioning the Trump administration’s harmful motivations here, and we should reevaluate our values as a nation. Trump doesn’t stand for us, and if he’s forced out of office, we have a vice president whose agenda appears to be the same. Vote wisely in 2020.
Note Carole Cadwalladr of The Guardian has done likely the best reporting out there on the connections between Trump’s election and Brexit and I strongly encourage looking into her excellent work. Here’s a link to an interview she did on Fresh Air that explains it all beautifully, up to mid-2018 when it was recorded.
Democracy thrives in snarkiness