Jun 20, 2016 4 min read

“Brexit” sounds like one of those mild pain relievers you see advertised on television during the evening news. You can just picture it: Images of joyous folk in late middle-age, purposefully walking their dog, gardening, playing golf or strumming a guitar, all liberated from aches and discomfort.

“Brexit” is not a pain reliever, however, but the sobriquet that was given to a referendum set for Thursday in Britain on whether the “sceptered isle” should bid farewell to the European Union, the group of 28 nations that banded together to form a single bloc with shared policies in such areas as trade, migration, agriculture and regional development. Nineteen of the 28 countries within the European Union have a common currency, the euro, though Britain opted to keep its own pound sterling.

While it’s not a pain reliever, “Brexit” has become a source of palpable agony for British Prime Minister David Cameron and other proponents of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland staying within the European Union. Voters seem about evenly divided on whether Britain should stay or go, and tensions are running so high Jo Cox, a 41-year-old member of Parliament who supported remaining in the European Union, was murdered last week by a man who apparently shouted “Keep Britain independent!” as he stabbed and shot Cox.

Supporters believe staying within the European Union will strengthen Britain’s economy, keep investment dollars flowing there from abroad, safeguard British jobs linked to the European Union and prevent it from being sidelined in an increasingly interconnected, globalized world. Opponents argue being part of the European Union diminishes British sovereignty. The prevailing sentiment of opponents seems to be, as one Royal Marine veteran put it to The New York Times, “God dug the bloody (English) Channel for us, so why do we try to keep filling it in?”

A referendum vote 3,700 miles away would appear at first glance to have about as much bearing on our lives as whoever wins on “The Voice.” But there are plenty of reasons people here in the United States, and around the world, should be holding their breath Thursday, hoping Britain decides to stay within the European Union.

First, if Britain opts out of the European Union, it could spark a severe recession there and send economic shockwaves rippling around the world. Boston-based economist Megan E. Greene told the website Politico last week if Britain leaves “there will be a lot of volatility in markets. But you could also end up having an existential threat to the European Union and then the impact on the United States would be even bigger and the market dislocations that follow would be much larger.”

A vote in favor of Britain leaving the European Union could also result in the United Kingdom becoming far less united. Residents in Scotland are much more supportive of the European Union, and if Britain leaves on the strength of English voters, the Scots could well decide they want to go their own way. There could also be renewed calls for the six counties that make up Northern Ireland to join Ireland, which is firmly ensconced within the European Union.

Cameron, a reliable and pragmatic ally of the United States, would almost certainly resign as prime minister if the vote does not go his way. His replacement could end up being Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and a right-wing carnival barker who recently suggested President Obama has an “ancestral dislike” for Britain as a result of his father’s family coming from Kenya, which was once a British colony.

The temptation of isolationism has long been a part of British life, going back at least to the Victorian era. And while Britain may be physically separated from the continent by only 20 miles across the Dover Strait, its fate in the 21st century seems wholly intertwined with that of its neighbors.

Let’s hope on Thursday Britain doesn’t pull up the drawbridge.