Infantilizing the political system

I can’t help thinking the royal wedding, no to the alternative voting system, and today’s release of “THE KING’S SPEECH“, are linked in some way.

The royal wedding was marketed as a national event we could all unite behind. A resounding “no” to the alternative vote was affirmation of “business as usual” for the political class. And today’s film release is the icing on the cake of the heroic triumph over adversity myth that surrounds the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

I think the cycle of recent events provides a bloody nose to those of us who would like to see this country as a republic, because it does what the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha always does, distract us from the real and lasting political change needed in this country.

When I tell people I think we should elect our head of state, they look at me like I’m demented. “You want a president (insert the name of the politician you hate the most)?” I would actually like to elect every person who represents me, because if I elect them, I can un-elect them, make them accountable for what they do in my name.

That doesn’t seem to be enough reason for most monarchists. As if wielding my franchise is somehow a silly idea, and I should know better. When I ask them what exactly the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha does for us, all they seem able to come up with is tourism. As if having big houses for commoners to visit is justification for infantilizing the political system in this country.

Ultimately that is what the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha does, it treats the people of this country as a “child or in a way that denies their maturity in age or experience”. I wish we could grow out of it, the way I grew out of crazy hair cuts, but as long as the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha remains in place, we are doomed to suckle on their breast, treated as children unable to emancipate.