In a review of a new book on the spread of democracy in the West, a reviewer states of the author:
He reminds us how, at the start of his period, democracies were rare: Europe was not merely severed by an Iron Curtain, but Greece was run by the Colonels, Spain by Franco and Portugal by Salazar. Outside the English-speaking world and north-western Europe there was little democracy; and his book is an account of democracy’s triumph, as Gorbachev lets the Soviet bloc go.
Indeed. I've noted that the Western tradition did not fully embrace democracy until after America entrenched in Europe following World War II and spread our influence. As I wrote in this post about the threat to America that could arise in Europe:
We forget the role that America played in creating the free and democratic Europe that we wrongly assume is the natural state of now-free Europe:
And that distance [between America and Europe] is allowing Europeans to revert to their pre-World War II nature of being a mix of autocracy, monarchy, and democracy. I had to be reminded by this author that our long period of influence in Europe during the Cold War had a role in making Europe truly democratic:
It is easy to forget--and this was a useful reminder to me--that Europe with its autocracies and monarchies was not fully part of a free West (although obviously part of the Western tradition) until we rebuilt Western Europe in that template after World War II. And NATO expansion after defeating the Soviet Union was more explicit in demanding democracy and rule of law for new members.
If left alone without the benefit of American influence, Europe as a political entity will evolve in ways hostile to America, as the proto-imperial body already exhibits[.]
My view is that the European Union is an attempt to reverse the American influence that led to the triumph of democracy in Europe. The EU proto-empire would like America out of Europe to allow the proto-empire to shed the prefix.
It is in America's interest to derail the EU imperial project. So we should support Brexit. We have friends in geographic Europe--but Europe as a political entity will not be our friend.
