What The American Experience Suggests For Brexit - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
What The American Experience Suggests For Brexit
by

Britons today face a similar dilemma to that which divided Federalists and Anti-Federalists debating the U.S. Constitution.

A few years ago President Barack Obama urged members of the European Union to admit Turkey. Now he wants the United Kingdom to stay in the EU. Even when the U.S. isn’t a member of the club the president has an opinion on who should be included.

Should the British people vote for or against the EU? But Britons might learn from America’s experience.

What began as the Common Market was a clear positive for European peoples. It created what the name implied, a large free trade zone, promoting commerce among its members. Unfortunately, however, in recent years the EU has become more concerned about regulating than expanding commerce.

We see much the same process in America. The surge in the regulatory Leviathan has been particularly marked under the Obama administration. Moreover, the EU exacerbated the problem by creating the Euro, which unified monetary systems without a common continental budget. The UK stayed out, but most EU members joined the currency union.

At the same time, European policymakers have been pressing for greater EU political control over national budgets. Britain’s Westminster, the fount of parliamentary democracy worldwide for centuries, would end up subservient to a largely unaccountable continental bureaucracy across the British Channel. In fact, what thoughtful observers have call the “democratic deficit”—the European Parliament is even more disconnected from voters than the U.S. Congress—has helped spawn populist parties across the continent, including the United Kingdom Independence Party.

Britons today face a similar dilemma to that which divided Federalists and Anti-Federalists debating the U.S. Constitution. As I argued in American Conservative: “Unity enlarges an economic market and creates a stronger state to resist foreign dangers. But unity also creates domestic threats against liberty and community. At its worst an engorged state absorbs all beneath it.”

In America the Federalists were better organized and made the more effective public case. In retrospect the Anti-Federalists appear to have been more correct in their predictions of the ultimate impact on Americans’ lives and liberties. This lesson, not President Obama’s preferences, is what the British should take from the U.S. when considering how to vote on the EU.

The decision is up to the British people alone. They should peer across the Atlantic and ponder if they like what has developed.

This item first ran on Cato at Liberty.

Melissa Mackenzie
Follow Their Stories:
View More
Melissa Mackenzie is Publisher of The American Spectator. Melissa commentates for the BBC and has appeared on Fox. Her work has been featured at The Guardian, PJ Media, and was a front page contributor to RedState. Melissa commutes from Houston, Texas to Alexandria, VA. She lives in Houston with her two sons, one daughter, and two diva rescue cats. You can follow Ms. Mackenzie on Twitter: @MelissaTweets.
Sign up to receive our latest updates! Register


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Be a Free Market Loving Patriot. Subscribe Today!