The European Union is what the United States was meant to be

If there’s one single issue which is the defining aspect of American conservatism, one core principle which sits in conservatives’ very bones, which they breathe in and breathe out, it might be limited government, which you can recast without too much trouble into the federal government has too much damn power (and got it through underhanded means).

Yet for some reason, American conservatives and libertarians tend to look with approval on the Brexiteers. A bold bid for independence, striking back at the chilly gray halls of power in Brussels! The isles standing alone for freedom, once again! If only we had some baddies to fight!

American conservatives shouldn’t feel this way. The European Union is what the American Founders had in mind.

Remember, we first took a stab at a union of states under the Articles of Confederation. This was such a failure that the Founders were sent to modify the Articles, and instead just started a Constitutional Convention to hammer out a brand-new governemnt.

This new federal government eliminated interstate tariffs and barriers, demanded that each state give full faith and credit to each other’s judgments, ensured that no state could discriminate against the citizens of another state. Suddenly, the country open up within.

However, over the past couple of centuries the federal government has also demanded the power to regulate (for instance) how much wheat a single farmer can grow on his land, to feed his own family. Arguably (because man do we argue about this), that’s too much power.

The EU has also dealt with all the problems that we had under the Articles of Confederation, but all the states remain sovereign, a true federation.

Maybe you can think of a sort of Goldilocks process of governmental design. First the American Founders tried the Articles of Confederation. This was too little centralization, not enough unification.

Then American Founders tried the Constitution, which allows the federal government, over time and after a war, to arrogate to itself every more powers. Too much government!

Finally, over half a century, the European Union was formed, and this is just about enough.

The Europeahn Union has so far managed to avoid excessive centralization for two main reasons.

First, they built themselves bottom-up, piece by piece, over a long time. I can hear the British Euroskeptics snorting now: “What do you mean it was built bottom up? Unelected bureaucrats sitting on their fat arses in Brussels passing down abstruse commandments from on high, is more like!”

Be that as it may, every power the European Council has gained has beeen granted it by the member states. The United States binds itself in this way too, through international treaties.

By accepting one treaty at a time, which are then part of the laws of the United States, we’ve also built up international law piece by piece. It’s a slow, modular process.

Contrast this, again, with the relatively one-shot deal of the American Constitution. Ratified by the states, and boom, all the core powers of the federal government are right there. And if you’re not sure if the federal government has a power, who decides? Oh yeah, the federal government.

Which brings us to the second reason the EU has unified without over-centralization.

Any new government, or competency as they say in EU law, can be vetoed by the member states. Who decides if the government has a new power? The states do.

Way back when, Alexander Hamilton argued that even though the Constitution didn’t explicitly give the government the power to establish a national bank, the federal government had that power, because otherwise they couldn’t do their job. The Constitution implicitly granted the government that power.

Look, I’m not accusing anyone of bad faith. I’m just noting that if you ask the government if they have a legal power, which would help them do their job better, usually they’re going to say yes. In the EU, they tend to ask the member states.

Freedom does not equal isolationism. No state should have to go all Idaho-militia, live-in-the-woods-alone, to avoid surrendering local government to a central and coordinating government.

The EU, so far, has managed to unify without over-regulating. American conservatives and libertarians should celebrate the EU. The Europeans finally figured out what our Founding Fathers were talking about - and they may have done it even better than we did.