The European Union was sold as a project of trade, cooperation, and peace. What Europe received was an unelected bureaucratic empire increasingly determined to dictate immigration policy, regulate speech, override national sovereignty, and force independent nations into one obedient political mold. Naturally, this is called “progress.” Liberty always receives a pleasant new label just before the political class confiscates it. Socialism and communism remain fashionable among European elites despite a historical record written in prisons, firing squads, secret police files, mass graves, and millions of dead citizens. Apparently, the lesson was not that centralized power produces tyranny. The lesson was that the wrong intellectuals were in charge. These systems cannot tolerate genuine liberty. Free speech exposes them. Due process restrains them. Private firearm ownership frightens them. An independent population is difficult to intimidate, manipulate, or rule by decree. Former German Ch...