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It was amusing to hear people who criticised Bush/Obama as being unpatriotic, in the UK and other realms it is seen as being patriotic to criticise the PM and other ministers.
For they are just the hired help .
The Crown persists in the UK (and 15 other Commonwealth Realms that have voluntarily kept the shared monarch) for several reasons.
1. The Crown separates patriotism from politics. No British politician has ever been accused of being unpatriotic when they criticise a Prime Minister. Something that often happens in the US.
2. The Prime Minister may be master of the political landscape and have the power to fire nuclear weapons, but authority for that power is vested in the Crown and the Constitution, not in him. He may issue orders but it is still considered “advice” that the Crown is bound to act on.
He must address the Queen and senior members of the royal family as Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Ma’am, or Sir. He gets’ a townhouse and a small country retreat, while the Royal Family has multiple palaces. And while the Queen is first in precedence at all state occasions, the Prime Minister comes in 19th. It teaches humility to politicians, who are not noted for their humility.
3. The Crown makes Prime Ministers and cabinet members disposable. Because a President is both Head of State (symbolic leader of the nation) and Head of Government (in charge of running the government). They are very difficult to get rid of when scandal hits. Had Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton been Prime Ministers they would have been dumped in a matter of weeks instead of dragging the issue out for months.
And while a King is difficult to force out, when push comes to shove an unsuitable King has been forced out, twice, in 1688 and 1936.
4. What is now the UK had a republic. Parliament killed King Charles I and established Cromwell as Lord Protector (effectively President-for-Life). England was mired in war and became a military dictatorship until the Restoration. Not a good record.
Actually, under the "republican form of government", the president is the highest ranking servant. One step DOWN in status from the lowest American sovereign.
Unfortunately, most Americans "volunteered" into the democratic form of government, became subjects, and embraced "Voluntary" national socialism (via FICA), so all manner of abuses have arisen.
If ever the American people withdraw consent, and restore their individual sovereignty, the subsequent collapse of the partisan wracked Federal empire will reverse the order of precedence.
GOVERNMENT (Republican Form of Government)- One in which the powers of sovereignty are vested in the people and are exercised by the people ... directly ...
- - - Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, P. 695
The people of the state, as the successors of its former sovereign, are entitled to all the rights which formerly belonged to the king by his own prerogative.
Lansing v. Smith, (1829) 4 Wendell 9, (NY)
At the Revolution, the sovereignty devolved on the people and they are truly the sovereigns of the country.
Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. 440, 463
It will be admitted on all hands that with the exception of the powers granted to the states and the federal government, through the Constitutions, the people of the several states are unconditionally sovereign within their respective states.
Ohio L. Ins. & T. Co. v. Debolt 16 How. 416, 14 L.Ed. 997
In America, however, the case is widely different. Our government is founded upon compact. Sovereignty was, and is, in the people.
[ Glass vs The Sloop Betsey, 3 Dall 6 (1794)]
Sovereignty itself is, of course not subject to law, for it is the author and source of law; but in our system, while sovereign powers are delegated to the agencies of government, sovereignty itself remains with the people, by whom and for whom all government exists and acts.
[Yick Wo vs Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 370 (1886)]
IN short, the individual American is a sovereign, a social equal of any other monarch, until he surrenders that sovereignty. That's why Americans don't bow nor kneel to any other monarch, nor should they accept titles of nobility from other monarchs.
The British Royal Family is a joke. They are still around for the same reason we keep the liberty bell, even though it was defective in the first place and is now broken and basically useless, though at least we're smart enough to venerate a tradition that is "low maintenance".
Anyway, Kings and Emperors sorta have a lousy track record over the centuries. It seems that when you give one guy all the power, he inevitably turns into a pompous self-serving murderous bastard SOB instead of being a wise servant of the people like he's supposed to be.
But hey, that's all in the past. It's not like human nature is fairly predictable or anything. I'm sure it would be different today if we proclaimed kings with absolute power.
Who would ever want to call anyone "Your Majesty"? That whole thing is a joke. Pompus ingrates.
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