1/
Many years ago (decades?) I read a comment by a historian who said that you can trace conservative positions to the that of the loyalists to King George: that they believe a monarchy is the best form of government.
I thought that a particularly dark way of looking at things. Sure, Nixon was called King Richard, but surely he really wasn’t yearning to be king?
Oh, who are these people?
Secret Service. I bullshit you not.
2/
Yeah, we have a LOT of weird shit happen in history. This was one of them. Now, it was “funny” at the time, not “haha” funny but WTAF funny.
But it shows you the power of the Presidency and how it can make normally “rational” people make ludicrous and irrational decisions.
Catch-22 (the book) has a character who muses how he can make parades work better by installing swivels on people. (Read the book). He believes this because he has power.
3/
No one is immune to power. Biden and Obama handled as well as can be expected. Trump in his first week as President okayed Seal Team Six (yes, really) to go on an op that ended up in disaster: one member dead as well as 10 civilians.
Did the press make a big deal of it? Nope.
Because, as that historian said, they looked forward to a king and the press wanted to be part of his court.
Before the election, Trump was handed millions in free press.
A king was normalized. (Break for chores)
4/
Back.
Okay, the Framers were decidedly AGAINST the monarchy (except for Hamilton who was a bit of a nutter — absolute power corrupts absolutely except when you REALLY REALLY want a king).
“ He famously made a six-hour speech about his own plan for a strongly centralized government, drawing criticism that he wanted to create a monarchy.”
Yeah, THAT Hamilton.
He just wanted HIS monarchy. Criming is bad unless they are YOUR criminals — sound familiar?
https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/alexander-hamilton
5/
The problem with a monarch is two fold:
1) they are only human and, despite how much you want to believe they can’t be corrupt, many times they are — beliefs are not facts
2) They are only your people until they are not. Much like “we didn’t know he was a serial killer” because serial killers don’t like to advertise… duh.
Doing “the right thing” is relative — one persons “right thing” is another’s crime against humanity (see just about any dictator).
Was Hamilton a bad guy? Debatable.
6/
I fall into the camp of “some things he got right but if you are in the camp of quoting his manifestos you drank the koolaid” — as I say he was a bit of a nutter.
Monarchies are also bad because with unlimited power comes the unlimited belief you can destroy with impunity. Yea, it’s good to be king. Someone says something you disagree with? Fuck the laws, you’re king! Into the oubliette!
There is rarely a king that feels constrained to follow the law.
This is what most of the Framers…
7/
… saw and believed.
As an aside, watch Franklin (if you have AppleTV) — it is how politics is done and shows the dangers of a monarchy — as well as being generally entertaining.
Main Stenographer Media is already calling for a king, so we will no doubt experience it again.
Because it went so swimmingly the first time 🙄🙄🙄