But why, Euro-enthusiasts have been asking themselves, can’t clear majority of voters be persuaded by two fine arguments that we have offered to them? The first is that the constitution is a noble document designed to help today’s enlarged EU march on more efficiently towards an "ever close union" [...] The other is that the treaty is just a technical matter that will make little real difference and is to boring for voters to worry their pretty heads about.

A song for Europe, The Economist, May 28, 2005.

America is too big, too diverse, and too free to be run by bureaucrats sitting in office buildings in one city. We must replace our centralized, micromanaged, Washington-based bureaucracy with a dramatically decentralized system more appropriate to a continent-wide country. [...] We simply must shift power and responsibility back to state governments, local governments, nonprofit institutions, and - most important of all - individual citizens. "Close is better" should be the rule of thumb for our decision making; less power in Washington and more back home, our consistent theme.

Newt Gingrich: To Renew America, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1995.

marshlands : aerial view

(camera height : 5 ft)

There must be some benefits in making a failure

earlier in the unification process.