What is it about us that we crave someone to idolize? This question inevitably arose today as I watched the people of England, and even many in other countries including ours, weep and rend garments over the death of Queen Elizabeth. Here was a woman whose only function in her life was to nod and shake hands. Somehow, the fact that she may have actually done more than that, but no more than any ordinary person could have done, is seen as worthy of worship. She won the gene lottery and plopped out of the womb directly into royalty.
The experts are telling us that the Queen gave the people of Great Britain continuity and stability. How? Only because those same people, through their irrational idolatry, gave her all those castles and robes. She was no more than a symbol – an empty vessel into which was poured the patriotic emotions of her “subjects,” a demeaning appellation that these people warmly embrace.
Isn’t this exactly the stuff we revolted against? Isn’t this exactly the stuff that the Founding Fathers rejected when they devised the way our country should work?
But maybe the Founding Fathers missed something (listen to me saying that I realize something that those geniuses didn’t – you may stop reading at this point if this assertion is just too much for you).
Maybe the Founding Fathers didn’t fully account for how much human nature craves the kinds of idols that Queen Elizabeth exemplified. Maybe one of the problems we have is that the only way we Americans can satisfy that need in us is to give to our President the irrational patriotic idolatry that in other places is given to monarchs. And maybe when we do that, we drape our Presidents into a kind of royal cloak that the Founders never wanted that office to wear.
Maybe that is part of the answer to the Trump question. Remember how Orange Julius cloaked himself as the personification of the nation. Remember “I alone can fix it.” Remember the picture of him hugging the flag and literally wrapping himself in it. Maybe those who believe in Trump no matter what he does are seeing Trump as the personification of our nation the same way the British see the Queen. Maybe their loyalty to Trump is a misguided loyalty to their nation.
The British satisfy their need for such a symbol with their royal family. The British don’t give their Prime Minister, the real head of their government, the same irrational allegiance. Because all we have is the President, the head of our government, he is the only possible target for those who need that outlet.
I’m not saying that we should have a royal family. I’m saying that maybe we already do, and that’s the problem.
We were right 