Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wanted to comment yesterday on the resounding defeat of the proposed EU Constitution by the people of France. But, yesterday was a busy day and it was not to be. So, you get your comments a day late (and perhaps a dollar short as well).

Your Maximum Leader is pleased with the outcome of the vote. (He is even pleased with the government shuffle done by President Chirac. Although it seems unlcear if the new Prime Minister is Dominique de Villepin or just plain Dominique Villepin. BTW, your Maximum Leader will go with Dominique de Villepin.) Indeed it is not clear now what the status of the EU Constitution is since France has become the first to reject the charter. It looks like the Netherlands will reject the constitution by the end of the day.

Your Maximum Leader believes that the French people (and he might add primarially the French people under the age of 60) have caught on that if the plan proposed by the bureaucrats in Brussels moves forward essentially strips member nations of nationhood. The French would become just one more cog in the great machine of Europe. Indeed, the former ancient and historic countries of Europe would become little more than emasculated states in a powerful Federal system. Your Maximum Leader is happy that the French decided that they need to consider their national and cultural identity further before deciding how much power to give to a central government for Europe.

Frankly, France has already thumbed its (gallic) nose at a number of EU requirements (concerning the national debt ceiling and monetary policy to name but two). They had already decided that quasi-socialist France is more important than the concept of the EU. But if they approved the proposed Constitution, and the Constitution was enacted; then the couldn’t reject EU requirements as they have. They would have ceeded real power to Brussels, and could no longer go their own way.

Your Maximum Leader has always thought that the EU as it has developed over the past 10-15 years has been a bad idea. He doesn’t think that the reduction of trade barriers or economic integration of Europe is a bad thing. What is bad is the giving up of sovreignty and national identity to an artifice known as “Europe.”

Europe is not a culturally homogeneous mass. It has widely differing cultures, people, languages, traditions, and values. All these factors make unified government (or cooperative government) a bad idea. Europe circa 2005 is not analagous to the British North American colonies circa 1776. Creating a United States of Europe means destroying the identity of millions and imposing a fake nationality on peoples with proud histories.

Your Maximum Leader hopes that Europe will re-think where it is going. Seriously re-think. And come away with a limited system of cooperation.

Carry on.