Why is America so alarmed by Brexit? Lest the reader be in doubt, remind yourself of this. Never before has a sitting US president visited a fellow democracy in a bid to sway an election. Nor, until now, have 13 former US secretaries of state and defence risked addressing a letter to a foreign electorate with the same motive. Ditto eight former Treasury secretaries and five former supreme commanders of Nato. Not only has the US establishment broken its non-interference rule over Brexit, it is stamping on its smithereens. If we did not know better, it might seem the UK was uniquely important to the future of the world.
美國爲什麼對英國退歐如此驚慌？爲避免讀者生疑，提醒你自己這一點。在此之前，從未有過在任美國總統爲影響一場投票而出訪兄弟民主國家，也從未有過13名美國前國務卿和國防部長以同樣動機冒險給外國選民寫信。這樣做的還有8名前財政部長以及5名北約(Nato)前最高指揮官。美國的體制內人士不僅在英國退歐問題上打破了不干涉原則，還在上面踩上一腳。如果我們不懂的話，我們還以爲英國真的對世界的未來具有獨特的重要性。