Vance and others close to him are setting up the intellectual basis for American withdrawal from and hostile rivalry towards the EU based on the claim that a democratic Europe has betrayed an authoritarian vision that Vance presents as the epitome of "Western" civilisation.
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It's an authoritarian version of framing of the US as true inheritor of "Western" civilisation supposedly abandoned by Europe that was always a staple of US nationalist discourse
I thought Trump was heading that way last time, with the addition then of a 'no deal brexit' UK, and Bolsonaro's Brazil to create a 'Kleptocratic Union' ...
The fact that Europe has had to take a sharp intake of breath and reconfigure itself and begin to take unified action should be viewed as a positive should it not?
Let them wallow in their Ethno-nationalism over there.
Perhaps they are one and the same?