Comment on Daniel Hannan, Telegraph Blogs: Why we should welcome German patriotism

Why we should welcome German patriotism – Telegraph Blogs

The wisdom of "Yes Minister" from "The Devil You Know"

Sir Humphrey: Why do you suppose we went into it (the EC)?
Jim: To strengthen the brotherhood of free western nations.
Sir Humphrey: Oh really, we went in to screw the French by splitting them
                          off from the Germans.
Jim: Why did the French go into it then?
Sir Humphrey: Well to protect their inefficient farmers from commercial
                          competition.
Jim: It certainly doesn't apply to the Germans.
Sir Humphrey: Well no, they went in to cleanse themselves of genocide
                          and apply for readmission to the human race.
Jim: I never heard such appalling cynicism.

The EU was created to subsume the tribes of Europe within some larger intentionally inefficient structure. Given the human cost of tribal battles over the past one to five hundred years the intent, even if futile or wrongheaded due to the cost to democracy and creativity, is understandable. The top down undemocratic nature of the EU is not a bug but a feature.

What this model and most European views of the strengths and weaknesses of Democracy fail to account for is the relative success of the United States. The US with one bloody exception has managed to harness very diverse regions and millions of immigrants from every culture on earth to form a country where the sense of community and nationalism is far stronger and less threatening to minorities than in the monoculture nations that the EU is attempting to dissolve. The welders together of the EU choose to reject the American model as to likely to unleash dangerous passions they sought to transcend. The founders of the American system more wisely crafted an engine to harness popular passions and use a sense of nationalism to unite diverse elements.