Call it the Forty–Year Itch, there’s something about being in a larger combination of former opposites that causes husbands and nations to get restive. Forty–four years after the Constitution was ratified in the United States the nation experienced the Nullification Crisis. That’s when South Carolina declared tariffs passed by Congress in 1828 and 1832 were null and void and would not be enforced.
Now 43 years after joining the European Union, the United Kingdom is having second thoughts about being a member of a ramshackle confederation run by pointy–headed cappuccino–drinkers in Brussels. This means there are two consequential elections this year that pit the forces of tradition and history against the promise of a trendy utopia just around the corner, if you’ll shut up and follow orders today.