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Originally Posted by davidd
I simply respond to Europeans by saying, "The EU is like the USA except we we have evolved into one country with no borders, with one prominent language, one currency, and the terrain and cultures are just as diverse as Europe".
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No it's not and I will show you why.
The US was always one country that except for the civil war had one capital, leader and loyalty. Even in the civil war it was a group of States against each other. The history of the US goes back 500 years and every century it goes back it has less history, 200 years ago it was largely unpopulated or even explored.
The countries in Europe have just stopped fighting eachother and if you go back a few centuries you will see civil wars within countries. Europes "Civil Wars" were the two world wars. But before that there was Napolean, Franco/German wars, Spanish/English, and many many more. Italy was only recently unified into one country, the UK had a civil war and a war between the houses of Lancaster and Yorkshire.
Our history goes back 2,000 years to the Romans and then further to the Greeks and beyond. We all speak different languages. The difference in culture in America is over 1,000s of miles, drive from county to county in the UK to see a change of culture.
Europe is far more fragmented that the USA because of this history and culture and even though the EU gives a picture of unity it's still very much split country by country. Each country fighting for it's own cause. Many times to the detriment of the EU, look at the farming subsidy and France for instance.
People here still put their own country above the EU, in fact it would be country, county, then Europe. Most Americans see it the other way around, well Americans I meet.