By Charles A. Coulombe
There may be liberty under a right monarchy: there has come a sort of slavery under the democracies of the modern form where a political oligarchy and a money oligarchy, now in alliance, now in conflict, have brought about grave disorder, social chaos, and the negation of the free and the good life, under the forms of a free commonwealth founded on assumptions that are baseless biologically, philosophically, historically, and from the standpoint of plain commonsense. ~ Ralph Adams Cram, Invitation to Monarchy
Although it is less so now, for the better part of my life, the phrase “American Monarchist” has been something of a chimæra, like “dehydrated water.” The very notion of monarchy was consciously or otherwise held in contempt in my native land. If an American expressed a fondness for the institution, he was obviously spitting on the flag, mom, and apple pie. The absurdity of the idea was underscored by the very success of our great nation, a superpower that stalked the planet. Our very national identity, after all, was founded on a revolution against a monarchy portrayed as tyrannical (cf. Schoolhouse Rock’s “No More Kings”). All of our civic holidays—Independence Day, Memorial Day, Washington’s Birthday, Veteran’s Day, Flag Day, Constitution Day, and on and on—celebrated our republican institutions, and disparaged what they had replaced. Every morning, schoolchildren swore the Pledge of Allegiance “to the flag, and to the Republic for which it stands.” As a boy, I certainly partook of all this quite happily. Continue reading
