That is the central flaw of all the great institutions of our society: they are large, centralized, and are taken over by the left even if they were created by good and patriotic men.

Winston Churchill (Great Britain)
Konrad Adenauer (Germany)
Joseph Bech (Luxembourg)
Johan Willem Beyen (Netherlands)
Alcide De Gasperi (Italy)
Jean Monnet (France)
Robert Schuman (France)
Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium)

Adenauer, Schuman, and Gasperi were the main drivers of integration, and they were all devout Catholic, Christian Democrats (center-right) who railed against communism and fascism and trumpeted the free market. Schuman was so pious and personally virtuous that he might soon be canonized by the RCC. Adenauer and Gasperi both went to prison for opposing fascism.

These men were not integrating politics in order to promote leftist viewpoints, but as a vanguard against the encroach of the left from the east. And the entire 68er uprising that this blog so denounced was a backlash against Adenauer’s conservatism. Those 68ers then toppled the conservative majority and reshaped the EU to suit their own purposes, so the conservatives are now in a coalition with the socialists in the EU parliament and commission. This is always the danger in building a centralized power: you won’t necessarily retain control of it.

I think these centralized systems necessarily grow more leftist over time

This is the crux of the problem, I think. This is why the balance between subsidiarity and solidarity tends to be so precarious.

I think these centralized systems necessarily grow more leftist over time because they are so very attractive to persons driven by a desire for equality. People will never be equal until they are governed by the same laws and institutions, and so leftists are always drawn to centralized power that can ensure they are governed by the same laws and institutions.

The EU is seen as a political counter-weight to the US. That is not ideological, but realpolitik.

Bread and circuses is the natural result of centralization, as you have to destroy the local culture to create coherence between the cultures, and then you have to placate them with alternatives. I’m not going to fault the Fathers of the EU with all being godless leftists, but rather with being naive about what their project would result in. They thought they could grow their own local bread and eat it, too. Adenauer would have been horrified by the current state of things, and it is uncharitable to suggest otherwise about such a pious man.

When I was growing up in Germany, none of us understood what was awaiting us. We were all terribly naive. We thought the people would always have babies. We’re still trying to get our heads around our own demographic death, as we saw it coming but sat in stunned denial for years before we could even speak about.

But we were definitely NOT leftists.

I also wonder about that. I don’t know why the EU in general is seen as a product of leftism anyway, as one of its main proponents was Konrad Adenauer, who saw it as a bulwark against communism and secularism.

The problem with the EU is not that it is too left/liberal, but that it is too centralized and therefore destroys regional cultures and disenfranchises the citizens of the individual states. Like with the US federal government. The fact that leftists are adept at co-opting any centralized government does not mean that the centralization was driven by them.