The main point of Schengen is not so much about boosting tourism, though it is about that and does a great job at it… It is to ensure that if any member state starts to fall to fascism, there will be minimal barriers for citizens of member states to relocate.
The ability to quickly move to another country and get employment and housing quickly with minimal red tape is the strongest defense against fascism. This is why I believe the arrangement should expand outside of Europe.
Congress can be corrupted. Courts can be stacked.
It is far more difficult to repeal the ability of your citizens to leave.
Even when a country decides to leave a single market, like the United Kingdom did with Brexit, it is not feasible for them to completely undo the progress and integration that their membership in the European Union created. The UK-EU withdrawal agreement allowed citizens in the EU to stay in the UK, and the same for Britons in the EU.
This is the reality of attempting to undo a freedom of movement agreement. It’s not possible to do it fully without causing major economic disruptions. The integration of the United Kingdom with the rest of Europe is impossible to fully undo without putting the British economy into a full collapse, which will guarantee rejoining the European Union.
I can’t stress this enough. A true Brexit, a full Brexit where the privileges of EU citizens in Britain are fully revoked, is impossible.
The timing of Schengen is a remarkable achievement in history, unlike any other. It is the largest and wealthiest free travel bloc in the world. The period after World War II saw the evolution of Europe from a collection of fighting monarchies to the largest bloc of democracies in the world. The first part was the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952. This intertwined the coal and steel markets of France and Germany to make it impossible for them to fight with each other. This was followed up by the formation of the European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community in 1960.
The European Community was formed in 1967, merging these three organizations into one umbrella.
In 1993 the European Union was formed by the Maastricht Treaty, bringing more treaties, TREVI and the European Political Co-operation under one umbrella.
The Schengen Area was formed in 1995, 10 years after the treaty was signed in 1985. At this point, the economies of Europe were intertwined in many different ways, and freedom of movement as a right for citizens was fully established.
From this point on, any country in the bloc falling to fascism will face a triple threat. The intertwining of their economies would make war infeasible. The decline in their economies will cause severe hardship, reducing the popularity of their government. Plus, freedom of movement will cause citizens of the state engaging in foolish policies to move to other safer states, draining the distressed state of labor.
This means that any national policy that harms the economy of any member state will hurt them politically and demographically.
Likewise, the full withdrawal from the bloc will cause severe economic hardship, as seen in the United Kingdom. Britain has been unable to fully withdraw because of the treaties allowing EU citizens who already lived and worked in the UK to stay, and vice versa. This means full Brexit has not happened. If Britain were to start to fall to fascism, the EU citizens would move back, starving the British economy of essential workers at all levels, causing the economy to shut down. Also, British citizens who live in Europe will not move back in such a situation.
So, after withdrawing from such a treaty, you will never see a full withdrawal occur.
Given what is happening in the United States, it has never been more apparent that we need the Schengen Area to expand to the United States and Canada.
If we were a member state of Schengen, you would see large numbers of Americans moving to Canada and Europe, along with Canadian and European citizens who live here, leaving the USA. No one would move to the US to fill the empty jobs, causing a severe labor shortage. This would starve America of the labor we need at all levels for our economy to survive if another president tries the same trade madness we are seeing from Trump.
We need to remove the president’s ability to unilaterally levy taxes. It was insane to give him such power in the first place. We must repeal the Trade Act of 1974, Section 122, and move the power to tax back to Congress.
Here is another good article describing the legal basis of Trump’s madness.
Businesses have already sued the administration for the sweeping tariffs, but the US Court of International Trade sided with the Trump regime, claiming a lack of standing. This is why I said that courts are not an effective deterrent against radical regimes. They can be corrupted, as I fear the USCIT has been.
Another step to prevent fascism is to make it so the President needs a majority of Americans to vote for them, and we do that by amending the Constitution and replacing the racist Electoral College with instant runoff voting.
So that’s my plan:
- Roll back presidential power to levy taxes. All taxes must be passed through Congress as our founders intended.
- The United States and Canada join the Schengen Area.
- Replace the Electoral College with Instant Runoff Voting.
This is how we defeat Trump today and prevent a future President from abusing the power of the presidency like we are seeing today.