Reclaiming our identity, pride, key to our own future

It was the highest voter turnout in Great Britain in almost 25 years. In fact, more than 30 million British voters went to the polls last month and voted on whether Great Britain should withdraw from the European Union (EU).

What is the EU? Well, I’m glad you asked, because it wasn’t exactly what I thought it was. For starters, the EU is an economic and political partnership involving 28 European countries. The idea began after World War II on the premise that countries that trade with one another are less likely to war with one another. It then developed into a single market, and by 1999, 11 of the EU countries even adopted their own currency, the Euro.

You see, even though Europe does not have a common language, culture or value system, the EU nonetheless has its own, single parliament system of government, and sets rules for its member countries on everything from the environment, transport and consumer rights.

The trouble is, most Europeans don’t really know how it all works, or who’s in charge, and there’s no real sovereignty for these countries, as members of the EU. For example, under EU law, Great Britain cannot prevent anyone from any other EU member state from coming to live in their country. Their border is completely open, as a result. And because the EU makes the laws, the voters in Great Britain don’t have much of a say-so, if at all.

This is one of the many reasons that almost 72 percent of the British turned out to vote on the issue of withdrawing from the EU. Some see it as these voters wanting to “take back” their country, or restore their national identity. And if so, we would do well in the United States to do the same.

After all, a nation is a group of people who share a destiny, and with that destiny, an identity. But this national identity needs pride, and a sense of affection that is expressed to the exclusion of any other allegiance. But because there is no common language, culture or value system in Europe, is it really any surprise that the British saw the foundation of their nation eroding away – and wanted to do something about it?

Did you know that only 54 percent of us here in the U.S. are very proud to be Americans? Compare that with only 33 percent of people in Germany, France and Italy (all EU members) that say the same about their own country. These are countries who are clearly losing their national identities – and quickly. The result is utter failure.

Just look at France or Spain or Greece:

These nations are replete with worker protests, and are facing mounting financial difficulties and unchecked immigration of unassimilated migrant workers, many of whom are openly hostile to their own host nation, demanding continued entitlement to unsustainable, state-funded social programs, and threatening the peace and stability of that nation.

Margaret Thatcher once said that Europe is “a classic Utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a program whose inevitable destiny is failure: Only the scale of the final damage is in doubt.” Indeed, she was right.

But none of this is new. Back in 2011, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted, “We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him.”

Former British Prime Minister James Cameron said essentially the same in 2011: “(W)e have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream. We’ve even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values.”

Does this sound familiar? And while America’s shores once assimilated different cultures and religions into “one nation under God,” today the “great melting pot” in the U.S. means that traditionalists get thrown into the boiling kettle of liberal diversity. Before long, our own nation’s identity will begin to erode precipitously, just as those European countries are witnessing now for themselves.

And similar to errors of those European countries, such as France and Great Britain, President Obama continues to express indifference, regarding our open border with Mexico, which continues to be plagued by cartel violence, drugs and other forms of illegal smuggling, as well as illegal immigration and terrorism. In fact, the authority of state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law has been diminished under the Obama administration, as the federal government now largely abandons the prosecution of non-criminal illegal immigrants and allows them to remain in the U.S.

Even dyed-in-the-wool liberals must see the parallels here with the European nations and the consequences of unchecked, unassimilated immigrants to one’s nation. The proverbial handwriting is on the wall.

Unlike the British, we cannot withdraw from any EU-like organization to save our country. We are everything that our country has to protect its national identity – and we must act before it is too late. There is simply no place for us to go because, in the words of Ronald Reagan, “We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth.”

Louis R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman and attorney. He is also a former aide to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His columns have appeared regularly in The Forum since 2007. Follow him on Facebook, on Twitter @ louisravallone or by e-mail at louisavallone@mac.com.