The European Union's minor step toward democracy has stopped in its tracks, having served its purpose of cushioning the proto-imperial body from a surge of popular resentment of the "democracy deficit" in that anti-democratic proto-empire: "the ugly bunch march on."
But if Britain does not stab rule of law in the back by actually exiting the EU as the referendum commanded, smaller states in the EU are experiencing a higher pucker factor based on their false view that Britain was their champion to prevent the EU from being the new overlord of the east:
Many in the East, especially Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, are wary of integration. With their history of having been forced into the communist bloc, they are afraid of being dominated by Brussels instead.
"Brussels politicians live in a bubble. They're creating a Brussels bureaucratic elite, which has lost touch with reality," Mr Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary said in March.
On a number of occasions, he even compared the European Union with the Soviet Union, an argument that Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also makes. In an op-ed that was published in April, Mr Morawiecki said that the EU risked harming democracy in its push to integrate, calling such an approach "dangerously misguided".
Gosh, I wonder why former Soviet vassals see the EU as a potential new imperial overlord?
Former Soviet vassals should have worked to qualify to join the EU--in order to meet standards of rule of law--and then stopped before joining the EU where rule of law will be used by Brussels to smother the newly freed states in the tight grip of ever-expanding cheese regulations.
And some celebrate that overlord role. The British and the rest of the EU provinces should heed the clear warning.