[Svartalfiar]

The two biggest problems with the EU are the Articles of Confederation, and the lack of unity.

AoC. There's a reason we dropped those and instead rewrote them and formed our current Constitution. Loong story short, the Articles were too weak, didn't balance powers very well, and basically created a national government that was useless. The EU is very similar, to where the national government is overly powerful in some areas, but completely lacking in others. (I'm using "national" to refer to EU, "State" to the different countries.) There's no balance, and it shows in many of the stupid things the EU does/is, like their minute intrusions into the States and people's everyday lives, yet, as mentioned, their lack of a national army, depending instead on the States to handle that on their own. External affairs, likewise, are in some ways handled national, and in others on a State-by-State basis.

What the EU really should have done, was just copy the US Constitution, slightly reworded (ie remove the declaratory clause from the 2nd Amendment), and build from there. From a global harmony perspective, I really think having the European half of the continent as a similar setup as the US would be the most beneficial. But, see point below.


The second reason the EU doesn't work is there is no national unity. They are basically ruled by France/Germany, with Britain (used to be) being big but kinda aloof. Everyone's nationality is still their home State (country, remember), and their regional identities are still completely NOT associated with the EU. In these US, who does everyone associate themselves with? "I'm an American." The only exceptions would possibly be some tribal members, and Texans. But even they do still see themselves as US citizens as well.

When these US were formed, sure, there were 13 distinct, separate colonies, but they still functioned as one group. Sovereignty was between them, but in an international perspective, we never really were 13 different countries. Even from the beginning, we were united. When the South separated, it wasn't several different countries formed, it was really two (Union and Confederacy). Again, Texas is a bit different, being our own Republic first, but still added to the Union. Throughout our history, there has never been a strong national identity associated with each of the individual States as opposed to the Nation. Europe is the opposite, no one, aside from a couple bureaucrats, sees themselves as an EU citizen, as opposed to being a citizen of Spain or France or Italy or Poland or so on.

[cartan]

Good point. The True Believers even recognize this. They often stress how they want to get rid of national states, which they make responsible for all wars that ever happened, and then go on to claim to feel they are “European.” But it never sounds right, just vapid posturing. They do not even believe it themselves.