It's 4 a.m. in London, and we've just seen one of the most stunning results in British electoral history.

The word Brexit has become so synonymous with chaos and political paralysis.

It's hard to remember how we got here, why Brexiting seemed like a good idea in the first place.

The dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom.

When the referendum first passed, the leader of the Brexit movement suggested making the day into a national holiday.

He said he wanted to call it Independence Day.

And the voters, at least the ones who voted leave, they were pumped. I feel elated. I feel it's the happiest day for a long time. Making our

own laws, I have no idea who's governing me and making my rules in Europe. And I'm looking forward

to the European club.

I'm tumbling down.

Okay, so everyone is talking about Brexit as a nightmare.

I feel like it just seems like a nightmare you can't wake up from.

But I'm wondering if you can start us off somewhere else. What was the

dream of Brexit? Well, the beautiful dream of Brexit really goes back a lot, I think, before the

referendum of 2016. There was always that sense that this was a love affair that was never entirely consummated on the

British side with institutional Europe. Anne McElvoy is a senior editor at The Economist.

She says, Brits were always a little wary of letting Europe tell them what to do. That's why she

wasn't so surprised when a slim majority voted to leave the EU.

So what would this look like?

Like to someone who voted leave, what would this look like ideally?

Well, I think I can tell you that from a couple of perspectives.

I come from part of the country, the northeast of England, which is very strongly leave. And I can guarantee you that if an American reporter goes

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