The EU Has Issues

The French appear to be headed for a "No" vote on the EU constitution. If that happens, it will be the killing blow to the idea of a European superstate, at least as it has been currently envisioned.

Don't feel too bad. The EU consitution would create a continental government with an unelected and largely unaccountable executive to watch over, overrule, and overregulate.

That is the source of much of the criticism of the EU constitution in Britain.

But that is not why the measure is failing in France. No, there it is failing because the French believe they gave up too much to Britain. Of course, nobody really likes the French anyways: "Europe unites in hatred of French."

And Germans aren't even being allowed to vote on it - their own government doesn't trust them to. That attitude has cost them, and German politics are about to go into upheaval, as the ruling party has called for new elections and embarked on a lurch to the left, going on an anti-capitalist anti-American rant that has already poisoned US-German relations.

In short, the problems come down to economies. Each nation has its own vision of either a free trade or a centrally planned economy, and those conflicting views are practically impossible to reconcile. And given that, a failure to ratify an EU constitution may be a good thing... at least for the US.