This story was originally published on nationaljournal.com on June 27, 2016. In terms of Amer­ic­an polit­ics, Bri­tain’s vote to leave the European Uni­on is something of a “Goldilocks” event. In­stead of strik­ing a bal­ance between too hot and too cold, the key to get­ting Brexit just right is not to read too much in­to it while also un­der­stand­ing its sig­ni­fic­ance. If I were a Brit, I would have voted to re­main in the European Uni­on, but too few people on this side of the At­lantic seem to ap­pre­ci­ate what the vote was really about. What be­came the EU began as the European Coal and Steel Com­munity es­tab­lished by six coun­tries (Bel­gi­um, Italy, Lux­em­bourg, France, Neth­er­lands, West Ger­many) through a treaty signed in 1951. In 1973, Bri­tain, Ire­land, and Den­mark joined the European as­so­ci­ation. The EU was of­fi­cially formed in 1993 and has since grown to 28 na­tions, in­clud­ing some that have little in com­mon with the United King­dom—so­cially, eco­nom­ic­ally, or cul­tur­ally. I sus­pect the EU has evolved in­to something quite dif­fer­ent from what the av­er­age Bri­ton had in mind. It

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