A response to Chris Hedges' republican outburst
‘Monarchs Belong In The Dustbin Of History’ says Chris Hedges. He would have to say this, at this sad time.
Like dizzy British republicans he doesn’t seem to understand the importance of our Parliament, though perhaps he can be forgiven as many of our own MPs don’t seem to grasp their role in defending the liberty of the people.
By the way, I think history shows that republics don’t last - Sparta beat Athens, Rome went from kings to SPQR to emperors, doctrinaire Communist countries were and are led by despots.
Anyhow, I think Hedges needed a reply, however amateur:
While I like to read you on US foreign policy, here I think you might have had the decorum to wait until our national wake is over.
Also, you do not distinguish between the Crown and the Royal Family.
The political power problem in the UK is that power has moved down to the Privy Council, who as Tony Benn once said could abolish our civil rights in one afternoon.
In your country the problem is that the Executive has escaped the constraints designed for it by the Constitution. The President has become almost a King, e.g. proclaiming executive orders and having the power to issue pardons.
In both countries the development of large corporations has raised an ancient problem, of reining in 'over-mighty subjects' that threaten social cohesion.
As to US history, I wonder if you have read Sydney Fisher's 'The True History of the American Revolution,' in which he estimates that only a third of the population wanted secession, a third were indifferent and a third Georgists (many of whom fled to Canada afterwards.) The rebellion succeeded because of British military incompetence, possibly abetted by a sympathetic British commander or two. The taxes contributed by the colonists did not cover the costs of defending them from the French and Indians. Fisher suggests that Washington may have harboured a personal resentment springing from the fact that as a colonial military officer his pay and status were lower than for his opposite numbers in the English army.
Instead of interrupting our mourning you might turn your attention to the question of whether the old wineskin of the 1789 US Constitution, designed for a largely agrarian society, can without bursting contain the new wine of industrialisation, a much more integrated economy and latterly a financialisation that has detached its winning class from reality. There's no going back to Jefferson unless and until the economic substructure collapses and that will be a most terrible episode in history.