It’s the time of year when politicians normally depart these shores for for the green tinged haze of Washington, a US political nod to the Irish American diaspora. Unionism, after many years avoiding the breakfasts, canapés and chicken dinners, now engage with the frivolity. That’s in normal times, these are certainly not. The gold standard invitation is to the White House but today it is not the simple photo op of yesteryear, it represents a statement.
World leaders travel to the White House in trepidation of hearing the Trump pitch, nice country you have there, shame if anything was to happen to it. For unionists some will travel because they believe in the Trump project, they envy his ability to make billions from elected office, they seek funding from the right-wing billionaires and ideologues who want to infect democracies across Europe with their fascism, they yearn to be part of a world where the message is, if you have the power and you want something, just take it.
Afew unionists may travel because they naively believe they will be promoting Northern Ireland, as countries and businesses around the world have found out unless you’re bringing a 747 jet, the deeds to a lithium mine or have recently bought $1 billion of Trumps crypto currency you have nothing he wants.
Travelling to Washington to engage in general discourse across numerous St Patrick’s day events is possibly still a valuable exercise, especially to build relationships with democrats, small d, from across both political parties in the US, though there are fewer of that ilk left in the Republican Party. Attending the White House is a different matter.
The incumbent is a sex offender, a paedophile, the most corrupt politician in US history, a man who rejects the rules based order which sought to protect nations and people following the 2nd World War, a man who covets Canada and Iceland, not for defence but for the wealth in their natural resources and who believes because he has military power he has the right to take them. A man so compromised by foreign intelligence agencies in Russia and Israel he promotes their objectives at every opportunity, though always seeking to make a quick buck on the side.
Attendance at the White House does not represent opportunity it represents validation of everything Trump stands for, for everything that has gone before and everything that will follow. There is no walking back the meaning of being there, once the threshold is crossed it cannot be uncrossed.
As noted some in unionism will be there because they believe in the project, they long to be part of the radical right agenda. It is my hope that there are unionists who recognise in this moment an opportunity to define unionism in terms of its values, the morals we hold and the crimes we cannot validate by our presence. You cannot sell the union on the basis that the society we wish to create mirrors Trumpworld, though some will try.
Standing up for the victims of child rapists, for the rule of law, for the right of peaceful nations to reject the threats of a right wing hegemony will require personal sacrifice. Forgo the canapés in the White House, take a stand for what is right, show the values that unionism truly represents, remember validation of what has gone before is validation of what is to come tomorrow
Cicero's Voice 