America? Not so much. There's probably some US residents that greeted it with a yawn, but, I venture that, of people who had an "emotional opinion" of some strength on the queen's death, the percentage saddened or whatever was higher here in the States than in the UK, and probably much higher than in other outposts of the British Commonwealth.
Some political scientists have said that most Americans' veneration for, nay, semi-worship of, the US flag is a substitute for not having a monarch.
If true, it's apparently not enough of a substitute, given yesterday's outpouring.
Didn't we secede from a distant ancestor of hers? Yes.
Aren't we supposedly egalitarian? Supposedly, yes; actually, no.
And, maybe THAT is part of the issue.
Study after study has shown that, at least since the time of Shrub Bush's Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld castigating "old Europe" for not backing the US on the Iraq War, that "old Europe" has higher economic class mobility than the US. Even with the UK having less class mobility than continental Europe, it's likely still ahead of the US.
So, maybe that's it. Royals envy is part and parcel of a class-based society that the US denies it has. I mean, I don't think "working class" White folk, let alone minorities, have this. It's a middle class and upper middle class and beyond issue.
As for Elizabeth? I've already done two semi-takedown obits in a week. No need for another.
I will note that when I dropped this Tweet:
Pictures Charles slipping into visit mother Elizabeth II with something like the docs did for his great-grandfather George V:
— TheRealSocraticGadfly (@real_gadfly) September 8, 2022
"Here, Mumsy, it's just a small shot of morphine to make you feel better and give you a nice, looong sleep."
Into a "Monty Python" group on Hucksterman, the only people who liked it were British. (Hatred was from both Americans and British, even though the Beeb mentions the reality of George V's euthanasia in talking about the "London Bridge is Down" transition plan.
So, I noted that I regretted this Tweet, also posted there:
Queen Elizabeth II getting some high-grade BBC at the end of her life? Prince Philip is turning over in his grave!
— TheRealSocraticGadfly (@real_gadfly) September 8, 2022
Didn't get the same vitriol and I was sad. (A full roundup of my Twitter snark is here.)
More seriously, and yeah, we're going to go halfway into obit land, with that.
Elizabeth wasn't "as racist" as Philip. (Or as the late Queen Mother.) But, could she have done more re the former Meghan Markle? Yes. It might be one thing to visit Oceania or sub-Saharan African portions of the Commonwealth as its sovereign or its non-sovereign leader, but the "color line" in the royal family? Not so much. And, let's not even get started on Charles' brother, Andrew, and Jeffrey Epstein. Oops, I guess we just did. Yes, she stripped him of titles just a month or so ago, but, this has been festering for a long time.
Otherwise, if you want "class," there's no need to look across the pond. The Windsors are as declassé as the ... well, as the Trumps.
That said, even though she reigned without ruling, Elizabeth did "nudge" here and there. It will be fun seeing King Charles III dealing with the twat of a new Tory PM Liv Truss and her climate-hating government. With their succession to their respective roles separated by only two days, there's bound to be head-on conflict, and given the degree to which Charles has long seemed to have been champing at the bit, I'm sure he's full ready for this.
Speaking of, per Unherd, if British democracy is so fragile, and crappy, today that you're worried about its post-Elizabethan future, isn't that another argument to junk the crown and take a full plunge? Or, to put it more bluntly, in Monty Python terms: If the death of some watery tart with a sword makes you fear for the future of your democracy, then per Samwise Gamgee, you never had much democracy in the first place, did you?
(UnHerd got even worse in its Saturday email blast. Good fricking doorknob, for a bunch of allegedly outside-the-box thinkers, their British contingent is a bunch of royal hand-wringers.)
Sidebar back to the Monty Python folks ... seriously, it's a Monty Python group, not a BBC newsreaders group. You could spoof the death of any living ex-president, or if a serving president stroked out (assassination different) and I'd be OK with it.
==
Update: It's not just Americans, though. Punker Johnny Rotten reincarnated as a royalist ass-kisser. Part of a great takedown.
1 comment:
As the coronation of the King Charles Spaniel now pends, it should be noted he's no bowl of cherries on racial enlightenment himself. Despite his hating "Dear Old Dad" in many ways, on this, he's pretty much a chip off the old Edinburgh block.
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