A Brexit for the best: An American’s take on the EU referendum

I’m supporting Brexit because I care about the UK


Although on this side of the Atlantic we remain completely preoccupied with a tumultuous, if not outright absurd Presidential campaign, there have nonetheless been glimmers of an equally existential and fascinating campaign happening in the UK. Indeed, the upcoming and long awaited referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union has evoked the opinions of a litany of figures spanning from Donald Trump to President Obama. Unsurprisingly, their stances on the topic were totally divergent, and sufficient for one to publicly rebuke the other.

It is often but not always the case that Americans’ interest is piqued in international elections. Indeed, Americans on both sides of the referendum will speak with an uncanny fervor and passion that only few nations can say they feel for others, and which almost universally tries to make the argument that Britain’s best interests are those of the United States, and vice versa.

Obama recently visited the UK and spoke about Brexit

In analyzing the referendum campaign, and the somewhat outsized role US political figures have played in it, along with its indistinguishable feature on the Presidential trail as a major foreign policy question, it must be said that this is above all an affirmation of the value and importance the electorates of both nations place in relations with its counterpart. For all the hot air being blown over the last several years on the “death of the special relationship,” the intersection between the two campaigns confirms the importance of this relationship, and the extraordinary affection our two peoples feel for each other.

I unapologetically believe that the European Union in its current form is nothing short of an abomination. Although I cannot claim to be anything other than an outside observer, the EU of 2016 is a fundamentally corrupt, rotten body that is no longer interested in serving the needs of its constituent nations, and is instead far more interested in defending the status quo, and assuring its own self-preservation by grabbing ever more power for itself.

The EU is not only a bad deal for Britain, it is a bad deal for the bulk of its members. While it has achieved its alleged goal of preventing another great European land war that will swallow up the whole world in whirlwind of conflict by interconnecting the member nation’s economy to an extraordinary degree, it has miserably failed to achieve broader security from internal and external threats for its members.

It has sowed the seeds of discord and discontent with economic policies that unfairly advantage some economies over others, beginning with a disastrous currency union, and including burdensome and expensive regulations. At present, the currency union which is the basis for all EU policy, but which Britain has thankfully managed to avoid, ties down nations such as Italy and Spain to an overvalued Euro that depresses their exports and allows Germany to flood markets with its artificially cheaper, higher quality goods.

The European Union of today is simply a bad deal for Britain, its member states, and all those who love and admire Europe. The continued dilution of national sovereignty and emasculation of national parliaments in favor of an unelected and secretive European Commission is no longer an acceptable path forward. The reality remains that regardless of whatever small concessions David Cameron has been able to extract, there will continue to be an unstoppable, silent, and deadly push from the Eurocrat establishment for Britain to acquiesce to Brussels’ demands. Like a slow acting venom that gradually breaks down its victim, the EU will demand that Britain change its values, economy, and political system so as to be more in touch with its stated objective of “an ever closer union.”

While I cannot hope to address every single one of the plethora of issues surrounding the referendum, the broader realities of EU membership and what they mean for Britain are quite clear. The simple facts are that the policies formulated by the EU do not advance free enterprise, innovation, and open markets, or in other words the very things which are fundamental to the Anglo-Saxon way of commerce. These same concepts have allowed Britain to be among the wealthiest and developed nations in the world, and which the United States undoubtedly inherited from her through our roots and can attribute to its own success.

The European Union is instead far more interested in protecting the established continental interests, enhancing corporate welfare, promoting protectionism and government interference, and operating on undemocratic and inefficient consensus politics. If it is one’s genuine desire to see a Europe that is wealthier, safer, more democratic, and stronger in the world, then it is their absolute obligation to advocate on behalf of Brexit.

A British exit is simply the only way to guarantee the fundamental reform of the European system, and an opening up to freer, fairer, and more transparent competition and cooperation in Europe.