Ever heard your house owning neighbor advise the guy across the street to stay in an apartment block instead of getting his own house. He tells him ‘You’ll be stronger in the block’.
Over the course of the British EU Referendum campaign, the US has like many others put in its two cents.
Not surprising, we live in an opinionated world and that is good. The exchange of ideas makes for a sounder set of arguments. I in fact love hearing other people’s opinions.
What I don’t like hearing, is people advocating something they would not do themselves.
The US government, and President Barack Obama especially, have been on and on about how Britain is better off inside the EU. This comes as no surprise since Barack Obama and David Cameron have had a long standing political alliance, so one would expect the US President to be firmly on the Remain case.
The problem is, if there was an entity like the EU across the pond, it would be something that Americans would never ever want to join. Why? Because Americans love their sovereignty. I’d even go far as saying they love it more than the British.
So here is President Obama telling the British people that they are better off part of a club within which they have limited democratic say.
Let’s clarify that actually. The people of Britain get to elect a parliament. They also get to elect MEPs. Those MEPs are part of the wider European Parliament. The British Prime Minister is part of the 28 nation set of leaders that meet to have dinner and discuss policies and crises. Mixed in all this is the EU Commission who actually make laws, and these are unelected. British citizens have no say on who is on the commission, or who the president of the commission is. The British people’s parliament has an increasingly lesser say over law making in Britain, as more and more aspects of law are ‘streamlined’ and put forward by the commission.
So let’s look at the Sales pitch for Americans to join such a club.
Dear Americans. We know you have your federal system of governors, senators, congress, the house, and government. You elect all these, including your president. That’s good, but consider this …
We’re putting together a club called the American Continent Union (ACU). We’re inviting all the countries on the North and South American continent to join up. It’s quite nifty actually. If you join, you get to have a say in what happens over the whole continent. We’ll give you seats on a parliament and you can elect members based on your size. You’ll have to pay a membership fee of course, which is also relative to your size, but that pot gets distributed across initiatives over the continent so it’s going to a good cause!
Oh and there’s an ACU commission that will run the law making for all the ACU member countries. Don’t worry too much about this, it will make your jobs easier as most laws will come from this commission instead of taking time out from your own congress. We’ll be sharing everything from military intelligence to resources. Win-win.
Your president can attend the ACU leaders meetings when something extraordinary comes up of course, but the ACU commission ultimately decides policy. You won’t be able to just make agreements with other countries either; the ACU will need to sign off on all those.
Does that sound like a club any American would want to join?
Don’t get me wrong, I think the EU has a sound purpose at heart and has achieved great things, however off track it might have gotten recently, but out of all the countries in the world, the least I would expect to advocate the UK staying in the EU is big proud US of A.
It’s like I love driving my own car. But I’m advising someone to stay in the carpool club because it makes them stronger.
Do I think they’re not good enough to drive their own car like I do?
The real reason USA prefers the United Kingdom inside the EU is perhaps more politically motivated than anything else. Maybe having a close ally sitting at a table with 27 other nations is a valuable source information about what’s going on in that club, even if not necessarily in the interest of the ally’s citizens.
Do you agree? Want to leave comment? Just hit leave reply below and let me know what you think.
make it a double 
So pleased I found your opinions and I agree with everything you have stated. It is just a pity more in the UK did not really bother to do their own research when it is so easy now to just tap in what you want to find out about and there it is.
Thankfully the out voters won but sadly many voted because of one or two issues promoted to them. Many voted to stay again because of one or two issues promoted to them. Your facts are good and I have tried promoting them myself.
There were/are many reasons the UK needed to vote out of the EU if it had been explained better to more people maybe more would have voted out. A lot of the propaganda was not good on both sides and it is a shame more positive facts were not promoted. I decided even before the campaign started but I did my own research hours and hours of it. Then someone told me about Brexit the movie and watching that just brought all the facts together.
At the end of the day I & many expected the USA to support us but no. It is all about money and power they think the ordinary working people are just bystanders, puppets for them to control whenever they can but thankfully one man, Nigel Farage pushed and pushed until the people got a vote.
Thank you.
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Even though we have good access to information nowadays, there’s also a lot of white noise coming from everywhere, especially the media outlets. The establishment is very much oriented towards its self interest, even now with a mad scramble for leadership bids.
As you said, if you look at the raw facts and arguments, the advantages of Brexit become compelling. Thanks for commenting.
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