brockm on Nostr: The thing is, I think the world would be a much better place if the European Union ...

The thing is, I think the world would be a much better place if the European Union was strategically independent, and fully capable of defending itself and setting its own foreign policy, independent of the United States. I think having a strategic competitor to the United States that shares liberal democratic values would be far superior to the current arrangement. I would literally sleep better at night.

Here’s the problem: despite Macron’s dream of pursuing this strategic autonomy, they’re not doing any of the things that’s would be necessary to make this a reality. To the contrary, Macron literally just went to China and called for deeper integration between the EU and China. France and Germany are in the advanced stages of exporting the manufacturing of their electric vehicle manufacturing to China! This is insane.

Macron is actually right to be pissed off at the US for its protectionist economic policy, stemming from the new industrial policies coming out of the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. The economic populism in these bills, should have been primarily aimed at China, and should have excluded critical allies like the EU — Only Mexico and Canada were spared due to their free trade agreement with the US. This was bad fucking policy by Congress. It punched the Europeans in the eye, economically for no good reason. But Americans are feeling very economically isolationist these day. So there’s a lot of idiocy going around on both sides of the Atlantic.

But this highlights another absurdity about the EU’s engagement with the US right now. Instead of running to China asking for deeper integration, because the US just snubbed them, they should be trying to sell the American public on how it would benefit *them* to cooperate with the EU on energy and supply chains. Not trying to convince Xi Jinping.

Sure, the US have become fickle assholes on trade policy. But it’s certainly worth the damned investment to push back on this. What the hell are we doing, here? This is serious shit.

I still have optimism that there will be a reversal of course here. But it’s going to come when enough of the North American and European public becomes sufficiently terrified through some external crisis. The real question is, how much damage will have been done when that happens?