As the body of Queen Elizabeth II is shortly going to be laid to rest, arising now is a lot of talk about the future of the monarchy.
During the 70 years of her reign as the British monarch, the longest ever, there was little talk of getting rid of the monarchy because she was so admired by citizens and people around the world.
But now there are headlines that read “Will the monarchy survive?”
We got some insight this week from a Californian but British-born political scientist at U-C Riverside.
At a time when there is a new monarch in King Charles III and a new British Prime Minister, he says the idea of having a head of state separate from a head of government is very helpful, because it allows criticism of the government without criticizing the whole political system.
Unlike the U-K, in the U.S. the president is both the head of state and the head of government, and this California political scientist says that means criticism of the president can be hard to pull off without it coming across as criticizing the republic. He says heads of state can be above politics and generally are supposed to represent and reflect shared values, not just partisan ones.
So with the all the partisan bickering in our country about whether America is great or not, is he suggesting that we should create a monarchy in the U.S.? That would never happen and shouldn’t.
But all this talk does raise some interesting questions about what an American president should be and represent when it comes to shared values and what our country stands for.
(Photo Getty Images)