St Patrick’s Day and the White House: What can Ireland do to affirm its commitment to pluralism and cooperation?

There is justifiable concern about the Irish Government’s St Patrick’s Day diplomatic plans. For the benefit of any readers outside Ireland, I’ll explain. I’ve been told many, many people read my writings — millions — the most ever — there’s aerial photography. Anyway…

Each year like clockwork, around St Patrick’s Day, there is a concerted diplomatic effort on the part of the Irish government to promote Ireland abroad. In many ways this is both necessitated and facilitated by the fact that Ireland trades as a small, open economy. Each year for roughly the last 50 years, shamrock has been presented to the US president. Nowadays, there is a bilateral diplomatic meeting and an attendant photo op.

Trump’s ascendancy and the consequent desire to raise diplomatic protest again laid bare how little leverage Ireland really has in Washington. As with any diplomatic engagement, the Government should proceed with caution. However, if the White House meeting is to go ahead, the Government must absolutely stand in opposition to Trump’s appallingly authoritarian agenda. This opposition must manifest meaningfully both during the engagement and consistently into the future.

Authoritarian changes in the United States of America are obviously of particular concern to Irish society. It is

• currently the world’s most powerful state;
• a state to which Ireland has numerous social, economic, and diplomatic ties, and;
• the focus of Ireland’s most intensive St Patrick’s Day diplomatic efforts.

Repeated statements of outright prejudice, including misogyny, racism, and xenophobia. Endorsement of torture (banned and a crime against humanity by international law, and ineffective). An immigration ban on refugees and citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, including dual nationals; a restriction designed to impact upon people of Islamic faiths. Consolidation of power in the National Security Council and controlling the Department of State while the media (not unjustifiably) was occupied with the Muslim ban. Economic policies likely to combine corrosive hyper-nationalism, crony capitalism, and the obliteration of regulatory safeguards for citizens, workers, consumers, and the environment. I could go on here, but I’ve decided to include an itemized list of concerns at the end of this piece instead. In this globalized era, the risk of rapid contagion of this corrosion in public life presents a problem for all. An small, open economy and society dependent on links with the US, as Ireland is, is especially vulnerable.

Here’s another problem — a similar problem as exists with all authoritarians. Evidence suggests that Trump is rarely, if ever, open to reasoned argument. He habitually eschews fact in the development and promotion of his policy positions. And another: he has a long history of bullying people and organizations with less power. Authoritarian in bullying shocker! scream the headlines.

It’s naïve to think that Irish interests would be genuinely advanced at any meeting. Trump would leverage anything and everything, with no ‘alternative fact’ too large not to utter. The context is an aggressive, white nationalist, ‘America First’ outlook. Cronyism trumps fairness. Fact and decency are rejected would be all but absent in any negotiations. Trump and administration members have long been strategically manipulating news and other information in attempts to create almost literally an alternative reality. That means they’re getting good at it. Ireland is small fry. A photo op is an opportunity to advance the Trump agenda to an audience of Irish Americans — many of whom voted his way.

Outcome predictions, though not certain, are grim. Any advancement of Irish interests would exact a serious toll, while potentially causing justifiable affront to those who are not Irish. Regardless of whether a headline meeting goes ahead (and I think that attending a meeting is likely a no-win situation for Ireland), Trumpism poses grave risks.

Like many others, I balk at the idea of an Irish diplomatic visit to Washington in this context. I am angered and saddened by the idea of the presentation of shamrock according to tradition. What can Ireland do to affirm its commitment to pluralism, democracy, and cooperation, in opposition to authoritarianism?

offer opposition to dangerous pressures to regress to a Europe of petty ethno-nationalisms

2017 is both the 60th anniversary of the EEC’s foundation and the 25th anniversary of the Maastricht treaty. The Government should consider a March 17th diplomatic mission to the EU itself to acknowledge the virtues of cooperation, maintain atop the agenda the particular challenges Ireland faces, and offer opposition to dangerous pressures to regress to a Europe of petty ethno-nationalisms. It would be an opportunity to signal that we do not accept the dangerous and reactionary agendas of Trump, Le Pen, Germany’s AfD and their ilk. The EU isn’t without issue, but a renewed effort to meet current and future challenges cooperatively is paramount. A stronghold of civil liberties and political freedoms, the EU offers security in a world of economic, ideological, and geopolitical tensions.

Forming common cause with others inside and outside the EU is vital to help protect vulnerable people (including the undocumented Irish in the US) and promote pluralism. Such cooperation could also help to build the relationships we need to have to navigate the Trump era. Long term, it does neither us nor victims of prejudice and injustice any good to join a race to the worst possible expressions of humanity.

Some people do feel overwhelmed. But individuals absolutely can make a difference.

What can the ordinary citizen do? It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of these changes. Some people do feel overwhelmed. But individuals absolutely can make a difference. Peaceful public protest has the potential to influence public policy. It’s also easy for protest to make us feel good but to achieve little that is concrete. Engaging with public representatives can be effective. Electoral politics is where the game is won and lost. That’s the leverage in a democracy. We have a responsibility to be aware of what’s happening, to stand in opposition to injustice, and to engage in the democratic process. That admittedly cliché quote from Ben Franklin applies:

“Well, Doctor, what have we got — a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

We must be willing to be steadfastly principled, pluralistic and open to international cooperation. Fittingly, St Patrick’s Day is named for a person who was born abroad, was brought to Ireland under duress, then fled, and later returned. To behave without principle is to do nothing to arrest the trend of authoritarianism that threatens the pluralism and international cooperation upon which we and so many others depend. Make no mistake, the currents of authoritarianism we are witnessing now are redolent of events in the 1930s. History is informative. This is not a drill.

Concerns:

• blatant prejudice — misogyny, racism, and xenophobia;
• ethno-nationalism;
• longstanding support of torture (which is inhumane, banned by UN Convention, a crime against humanity (ICC)*, and also does not provide reliable, truthful information) *the US has not actually ratified membership of the International Criminal Court;
• dangerous and globally consequential, i.e. disastrous, energy policy and convenient climate denialism;
• xenophobic immigration policies (including the refugee and Muslim-country immigration ban, and its enforcement on Irish soil via immigration pre-clearance);
• threatened restrictions on press freedom;
• actual restrictions on academic freedom, and a general anti-intellectualism and anti-science, which is related to;
• a systematic effort to undermine accepted truths (which I’ve written about here and here);
• likely assault on education, in which puts vulnerable students at risk, peddles anti-science and falsehoods, and stymies the progress of a generation;
• attempts to de-legitimize democratic electoral politics, and in the long term to disenfranchise minorities;
• worrying statements on nuclear policy, including those in favour of a renewed nuclear arms race;
• consolidation of power by appointing unqualified Bannon to the National Security Council;
• probable restrictions on civil rights (women’s rights, voting rights, etc.) and liberties (surveillance), and;
• a predilection for a variety of capitalism fuelled by cronyism and dangerous deregulation.