I love how the EU is veering back to its social-democratic roots now that winner-take-all UK Brexited itself from the Union.
One of the strengths of the EU is that it is not a Federation. The nations are indeed still independent states but agreeing to the larger setup. As such, the set up is still bottom-up and not top-down.
It will be hard to recognize for an American what Europe is when stationed in one country and not having lived in a good number of them. You will likely not see the difference unless your eyes are trained on it.
When I moved to the US, I was told it takes 15 years to become part of a culture. After 12 years, I finally got there. It sounds like you have a few more years to go, but your insights are important. It just looks like you are still associating yourself with a specific US entity and you have not embraced your new EU identity yet. You may have forgotten how few people come out to vote in local elections in the USA, the lowest in the entire democratic world. There is simply not enough to entice folks to come out and vote like people do in Europe.
I love how the EU rich are now taxed more to help out with Covid and problems with the Invasion of Ukraine by Russia. I love how minimum wage increases are tied with the rise of middle-income wages. Thank God, the UK is out of the EU, and winner-take-all is out of the picture. Even libertarian parties are now saying that the rich need to help out with the crises experienced by the bottom of society. How refreshing.
It helps to have multiple parties. Red and blue do not suffice to create good societies. But having just two parties does help make a nation strong. The EU is not yet there about the need to defend itself, but Russia is waking up the Europeans that have gone to war so many times throughout their history that it was very welcome to have a long break with the aid of the USA. We are now in a new period. But we better do it together with the USA.
The USA is a European spin-off nation. It embraced the Enlightenment, but unfortunately it also held on to medieval (English) ideas at the same time (winner-take-all). Together, USA and EU can make this a better world. The USA can become a better country itself if it just follows the Founding Fathers' setup better. It needs to get rid of that British sting that lopsided the world for too long. The Framers had it nailed, but soon after folks at the State levels let go of the essence.
'A Republic, if you can keep it'
https://fred-rick.medium.com/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-9e2990d3ceab
