MIKE PENCE DOESN’T LIKE YOU
As you may know, Mike Pence went to the opening of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. As you may also know, it got a bit awkward. More than once. Several times, actually.
Most of the awkwardness, of course, had to do with North Korea - both the fact that the North and South Korean teams came together for the event, and the fact that Kim Jong Un’s mystery sister was at the same function as Pence - and even sat in the same booth with him.
Which is kind of awkward when both yr leaders are bragging about the size of their imaginary nuclear launch buttons on their desks.
Then again, it may not be that awkward for Pence, who is clearly under orders from Headquarters to make sure everyone understands that North Korea is an evil, terrible country with an evil, terrible leader and don’t let all this Olympic unity crap fool you for one minute.
Which is technically true, of course. But it’s a hard sell when (1) the President of South Korea - who arguably has a much bigger stake in the NK standoff than the US does - is over there shaking hands and making nice, and (2) the Olympics are supposed to be the one place besides maybe Christmas and the World Cup where nations can put aside their political differences just for a few days and just hang out and not be dicks to each other.
Okay, sure, in practice the Olympics have probably never been nearly as free of politics as we like to pretend they are or should be. Still, Pence does come off looking like a jerk since he’s basically the only official doing the snubbing.
Again, Pence probably doesn't care, and neither do Trump fans who equate basic politeness with appeasement of your enemies, and would just as soon Trump push that imaginary button and wipe every North Korean off the face of the earth. Cos they likes them some hardline.
For non-fans like me, it’s just another blatant Pence publicity stunt. It wouldn't be the first time he went out of his way to attend a sports event for the singular and explicit purpose of Being Seen making a political statement on behalf of his boss.
But this is a potentially bigger deal. Pence walking out on NFL players taking a knee didn’t help race relations in the US, but I don’t think that action alone made them any worse than they already were. His behavior at the Winter Olympics could have far greater ramifications because if we’re serious about war being a last resort, we need to do better at the first resort (diplomacy). And historically, one of the hardest things about diplomacy with NK is actually getting them to the damn table in the first place.
And so here we have major govt dignitaries from both NK and the US literally in the same room for what is ostensibly meant to be a peacemaking event - the diplomatic opportunity of a lifetime - and Pence blew it.
I’m not saying they could maybe have hammered out a peace deal during the curling event or anything. But the first step to diplomacy is getting face to face and seeing that they’re basically human beings like you and it’s everyone’s best interest to try and work something out - at least as a stopgap. If you can’t even do that at a freaking global sports ceremony, then how in the world are you going to get them to a real negotiating table?
Yes, I know, we tried that before and NK reneged, etc and so on. And it’s certainly true that while the South and the North are making nice for the Olympics, it will mostly likely be back to business as usual once the event is over. And I’m sure it’s true that NK is playing nice as a calculated ploy to make Kim Jong Un look like not such a bad guy after all.
Which is why I think it would be smarter strategically for Pence to play nice as well, or at least be polite - at the very least, there’s nothing to lose by doing so. But then the Trump admin isn’t interested in playing the diplomacy game. It’s more interested in the Talk Loud, Carry A Big Stick And Convince Everyone You’ll Use It If You Don't Get What You Want game.
Personally, I suspect Trump has not only decided that diplomacy is for suckers and weaklings, but also wants to use NK to show everyone how big his cock is. The more paranoid side of my brain suspects that he fully intends to kick NK’s ass, but is just waiting for the most politically opportune time - an FBI indictment, say, or at least solid proof that he knew about Russia helping his campaign and accepted. I could be wrong. But at this stage, nothing seems implausible now, does it?
One other aspect of Pence’s Olympics shenanigans: while he may be acting at Trump’s direction, I think it also provides a glimpse of what he’d be like as POTUS. Which isn’t especially comforting. My general feeling about Pence is that yes, he’d be a better POTUS than Trump - but then the same could be said of George W Bush. And Bush, let’s remember, was a terrible POTUS. Based on what I’ve seen so far (and also looking at his record as Indiana governor) Pence would probably be a repeat of Dubya - that’s probably the best we could hope for.
What a time to be alive, eh?
Diplomatically immune,
This is dF
This entry was originally posted at https://defrog.dreamwidth.org/1612103.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Most of the awkwardness, of course, had to do with North Korea - both the fact that the North and South Korean teams came together for the event, and the fact that Kim Jong Un’s mystery sister was at the same function as Pence - and even sat in the same booth with him.
Which is kind of awkward when both yr leaders are bragging about the size of their imaginary nuclear launch buttons on their desks.
Then again, it may not be that awkward for Pence, who is clearly under orders from Headquarters to make sure everyone understands that North Korea is an evil, terrible country with an evil, terrible leader and don’t let all this Olympic unity crap fool you for one minute.
Which is technically true, of course. But it’s a hard sell when (1) the President of South Korea - who arguably has a much bigger stake in the NK standoff than the US does - is over there shaking hands and making nice, and (2) the Olympics are supposed to be the one place besides maybe Christmas and the World Cup where nations can put aside their political differences just for a few days and just hang out and not be dicks to each other.
Okay, sure, in practice the Olympics have probably never been nearly as free of politics as we like to pretend they are or should be. Still, Pence does come off looking like a jerk since he’s basically the only official doing the snubbing.
Again, Pence probably doesn't care, and neither do Trump fans who equate basic politeness with appeasement of your enemies, and would just as soon Trump push that imaginary button and wipe every North Korean off the face of the earth. Cos they likes them some hardline.
For non-fans like me, it’s just another blatant Pence publicity stunt. It wouldn't be the first time he went out of his way to attend a sports event for the singular and explicit purpose of Being Seen making a political statement on behalf of his boss.
But this is a potentially bigger deal. Pence walking out on NFL players taking a knee didn’t help race relations in the US, but I don’t think that action alone made them any worse than they already were. His behavior at the Winter Olympics could have far greater ramifications because if we’re serious about war being a last resort, we need to do better at the first resort (diplomacy). And historically, one of the hardest things about diplomacy with NK is actually getting them to the damn table in the first place.
And so here we have major govt dignitaries from both NK and the US literally in the same room for what is ostensibly meant to be a peacemaking event - the diplomatic opportunity of a lifetime - and Pence blew it.
I’m not saying they could maybe have hammered out a peace deal during the curling event or anything. But the first step to diplomacy is getting face to face and seeing that they’re basically human beings like you and it’s everyone’s best interest to try and work something out - at least as a stopgap. If you can’t even do that at a freaking global sports ceremony, then how in the world are you going to get them to a real negotiating table?
Yes, I know, we tried that before and NK reneged, etc and so on. And it’s certainly true that while the South and the North are making nice for the Olympics, it will mostly likely be back to business as usual once the event is over. And I’m sure it’s true that NK is playing nice as a calculated ploy to make Kim Jong Un look like not such a bad guy after all.
Which is why I think it would be smarter strategically for Pence to play nice as well, or at least be polite - at the very least, there’s nothing to lose by doing so. But then the Trump admin isn’t interested in playing the diplomacy game. It’s more interested in the Talk Loud, Carry A Big Stick And Convince Everyone You’ll Use It If You Don't Get What You Want game.
Personally, I suspect Trump has not only decided that diplomacy is for suckers and weaklings, but also wants to use NK to show everyone how big his cock is. The more paranoid side of my brain suspects that he fully intends to kick NK’s ass, but is just waiting for the most politically opportune time - an FBI indictment, say, or at least solid proof that he knew about Russia helping his campaign and accepted. I could be wrong. But at this stage, nothing seems implausible now, does it?
One other aspect of Pence’s Olympics shenanigans: while he may be acting at Trump’s direction, I think it also provides a glimpse of what he’d be like as POTUS. Which isn’t especially comforting. My general feeling about Pence is that yes, he’d be a better POTUS than Trump - but then the same could be said of George W Bush. And Bush, let’s remember, was a terrible POTUS. Based on what I’ve seen so far (and also looking at his record as Indiana governor) Pence would probably be a repeat of Dubya - that’s probably the best we could hope for.
What a time to be alive, eh?
Diplomatically immune,
This is dF
This entry was originally posted at https://defrog.dreamwidth.org/1612103.html. Please comment there using OpenID.