The Queen is Dead, Long Live The King!
With democracy in peril, maybe monarchy can help.
Like a lot of people, I was caught off guard when I learned of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Maybe even more so. For one thing, it was my birthday, so I was expecting nothing more unusual from the day than some mildly congratulatory emails and texts from friends and family, then a nice dinner out with my wife. But what’s most surprising is how so many of us were shocked and saddened by the news. Hadn’t we all anticipated this, especially given her advanced years? Perhaps it was how quickly it seemed to happen: just two days before, she was receiving Liz Truss at Balmoral as the new Prime Minister. And then … gone. But as so many have noted, it’s also because, for anyone under the age of 70, she’s never not been the British monarch.
This category includes me (but not my English mother, who turns 90 next week and has now seen the reigns of five monarchs). I’m both an American and a Brit, so I have a somewhat unusual vantage point. As a subject of the realm (a more fancy way of saying a U.K. citizen), I just suffered the loss of my beloved sovereign. Wasn’t that a cause for mourning? But as a native-born U.S. citizen, I can afford a bit more detachment. Didn’t we Americans cast off the yoke of monarchy and colonial rule in 1776 for good reason? Yes and Yes.
With some deeper reflection, however, I’m able to achieve a little more perspective. America, like Britain and sadly many other nations, is struggling of late with the whole enterprise of democracy. Populism is on the rise, if not outright autocracy. We’ve seen Donald Trump and Boris Johnson come and go as leaders, but they haven’t entirely departed the stage. As many have noted, they have more in common than bad hair, narcissism and a fondness for mendacity. One can argue and even vehemently disagree about public policy — for or against certain economic or social measures — as long as there’s a basic allegiance to honest debate and the rule of law. But when the mission becomes the dismantling of democracy itself — the peaceful transfer of power — in favor of the cult of personality, we’re in deep trouble.
The irony, of course, is that historically monarchy has been associated with the absence of democratic rule and usually takes the form of compelled obedience to the figurehead. But instead, in these uncertain times, I find myself wondering if Britain’s unique constitutional monarchy isn’t in fact an antidote to rampant populism. And my mourning for Queen Elizabeth isn’t just for the death of a flesh-and-blood woman, who was also a devoted wife, mother and grandmother, but for a ceremonial head of state whose stolid devotion to duty helped steady the actual ship of state in often-turbulent waters.
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
— Benjamin Franklin
We in America of course have no such institution. So we’re truly left to our own devices, as the framers of the Constitution intended. Lately, things haven’t been going so well. President Biden all but called the GOP out recently for becoming a party of fascism, and by any reasonable definition of the word he isn’t wrong. The one branch of American government I’ve thought could save us — the federal judiciary — has had its independence severely compromised by certain Trump nominations, including the Florida district judge currently at odds with the Justice Department in its case about Trump’s wrongful retention of classified presidential documents. Attorney General Merrick Garland certainly knows the old dictum: If you come at the King, you best not miss. Meanwhile, we citizens of the republic look on with no small measure of trepidation. Will our votes, gerrymandered or not, be properly counted in 2022 and 2024? Or will MAGA-friendly election officials in key states hand a former — and twice-impeached — president the imperial presidency he so desperately craves?
“It’s not the voting that’s democracy; it’s the counting.”
― Tom Stoppard
Back in Old Blighty, there are fervent if cautious hopes for King Charles III. He seems to have matured considerably from the insecure, quixotic youth he once was. Even though as monarch he can no longer make pronouncements about the perils of poverty or global warming, at least we know his heart is in the right place. True, he has no personal responsibility for the historical wrongs of the mighty empire that was Britain, a legacy that — like America’s — includes the twin evils of slavery and territorial conquest. But he can send the right signals, such as acknowledging those past transgressions and helping to chart a more enlightened future course. After the public relations fiasco of his mother’s initial bungling of the death of Princess Diana, probably her only significant misstep as Queen apart from Aberfan, Charles of all people knows that the modern institution of the monarchy exists solely at the collective pleasure of his royal subjects. Will it remain in the coming years and decades, with its lavish castles and liveried servants, as the populace struggles with rampant inflation, increased energy costs and an over-heated climate? Probably only in a slimmed-down form. And even then, only time will tell.
For now, I’ll join in the historic cry: The Queen is dead, long live The King!
Meanwhile, I’ll say a silent prayer for democracy in Britain and America and beyond.
