A world spiralling to the right: Many steps, but one purpose
It is not necessary to be paranoid to see the professional assassination of Britain’s ambassador to America, Kim Darroch, as a step in the ascent of right-wing forces.
The supine response of Boris Johnson confirms that when a majority of Britain’s 140,000 or so Conservative party members make him prime minister, capitulation to America’s “inept” and “dysfunctional” president will be routine.
A suspect for that Darroch leak has been identified and if a case is built against that person, how a Johnson administration responds will be a defining moment.
Whether it is a vassal-state or one that defines an independent sovereign state is the question.
That spiral to the right has been underway in Hungary since Viktor Orbán became prime minister, but now his campaign for an “illiberal” Hungary has been supported by László Kiss-Rigó, the Catholic bishop of Szeged, who seems happy to oppose migration to “protect Christian values”.
Once again, a churchman puts opportunity before principle.
It is hard to consider that view without also considering images of America’s vice-president, Mike Pence, at the perimeter of a border compound, where poor immigrants are held in deliberately inhuman conditions for the crime of daring to want a better life because they were born in the wrong place.
The decision of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, to nominate his son Eduardo as ambassador to the United States seems part of the same darkening challenge, too.
