Neocons Set to Pivot on Ukraine and Leave the EU to Burn?

I was lying on the hospital gurney, waiting to be wheeled in for my hip op. It was around midnight US time and I was monitoring the 7 swing states on AP News. Florida had already gone to Trump but the others were split. The guys came in. Three hours later I came round and it was already over.

Now everyone is like - Trump is going to have to fight the Neocons like crazy. They’re going to want to hook him up in Ukraine, keep him tied up in all that stuff.

Maybe. But, equally, maybe not.

Because whilst the average Neocom comes across as a lomotomized Fred Flintstone with a heap of arms company contracts in his back pocket, post last Weds, they have a whole new play in front of them, if they choose to use it.

They don’t have to actually drop Ukraine visibly. Just not fight quite as hard as they might to keep the support flowing. Because, you know, the guy in orange.

Meanwhile that same orange guy starts issuing trade tariffs against the EU.

What is then going to happen?

The German economy will find itself hit by a three-directional attack and it’s already not doing so great. It will go into a death spiral, dragging the EU straight to the bottom of the lake with it.

But why would the Neocons, supposedly so allied to globalism, want to do such a thing? Well, wind back twenty years to GWB and Iraq and who was it that painted all Americans as warmongering psychos back then? Whilst crowing loudly about how only they were the acceptable face of global capitalism? That would be the EU.

Time will tell but this might prove an ideal moment for the Neocons to pivot out of global neoliberalism, never a great fit for them anyway, and back to more traditional ground.