Listening to the podcast of Arthur@AmeriNZ recently. He noted that Rachel Maddow of MSNBC apologized to US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for calling him Bernie. Arthur, an American now living in New Zealand was amused/bemused by this apology. In his adopted nation, the prime minister is first among equals, and is referred to by the first name; the same tends to be true in the UK and in other countries that used to be called the British Commonwealth.
So what do they have that the United States doesn’t have?
They have a queen. Queen Elizabeth II, or her representative.
Whereas the United States, the anti-monarchical nation, has a much formal structure for addressing its leaders, “Mr. President,” and the like.
I had to laugh when Michelle Obama, speaking about Hillary, referred to her as “Senator, er, Secretary Clinton — almost said, President Clinton.” Whereas the UK, NZ, Australia use up their formality quotient on royalty.
Like John Oliver, the Senior British Person on the Daily Show noted a couple of weeks back, “the Brits have actual royalty, which is ‘why we can treat our political leaders like the disposable bureaucrats that they are.'”
So it’s obvious: the United States needs royalty.
Seriously, I thought that Ronald Reagan should have been king. For reasons I don’t need to get into, I was not crazy about his politics. At the same time, I recognized the positive impact his optimism had on certain segments of the populace. I decided around 1984 that I did not want him as President, but that he would be great as monarch. He said warm and fuzzy things about “morning in America”; we could feel good about ourselves without him having to have real power that could turn into Iran contra or the like.
So who should be our royal now? I’m not sure. Maybe Queen of All Media Oprah Winfrey. Perhaps a popular Olympiad from the most recent games. Or the mirror ball winner on Dancing with the Stars.
It’d be like king or queen of the prom. We can get all pomp and circumstancy with a royal. Then Rachel Maddow can call senator Sanders Bernie, like, he told her, everyone else does.
I think we should refer to all politicians as ‘servant’, this way they aren’t allowed to forget that they are supposed to work for us, not the other way around.
In parliamentary republics, the president usually fills the role a monarch does, with the power of government residing in a premier, chancellor, prime minister or whatever. The Queen is, of course, a hereditary monarch, and I’m not a big fan of that arrangement, even though I like our current Queen. The vice-royal (Governor-General in most of our countries) is appointed by Parliament.
BTW, the “British Commonwealth” is now simply known as The Commonwealth, which is an association of 54 countries, all but two were formerly part of the British Empire or associated with a country that was. The most recent member was admitted in 2009. The Queen is Head of the Commonwealth.
As for a monarch for America, I nominate Ellen DeGeneres because that would piss off all the right people (literally, probably). Yeah, I’m impish like that.