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Entry: Big Brother in Brussels Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/big_brother_in_brussels#6787 Post contents: Minor correction: Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis is by Bat Ye'Or. Mark Steyn is Conrad Black's court comedien, author of America Alone and works on Broadway show tunes. Mr. Harvey: There is plenty of precedent for republicanism in Europe outside Switzerland. The Venetian and Florentine Republics and other Italian republics fought the French sovereign and were hostile to monarchy. Sure, Naples was a kingdom, but today it's a seafood dispensary. Many of the German states before unification were ruled by an elected grand homme. I believe Norway has a strong republican tradition since independence. Europe is not America, true, but not every European country is Britain or Spain either. Whether this is "conservative" or Rightist is irrelevant if the question is good governance in keeping with cultural traditions. Can you honestly say Sweden and its monarch (with their gay marriage, socialism, out of wedlock births and top-down multiculturalism) have preserved traditionalism better than the Republics of Austria or Italy? A monarchy can be as artificial an imposition on a people as the EU itself. Look at Belgium, where the monarch is a Leftist trying to suppress the republicanism of Flanders. I think it’s better to preserve a people’s traditions as they see fit. That strikes me as more conservative in the emphatic sense of the word. Sent at: 2008 08 29