Should America switch to a monarchy system?
Interest grows in pushing for California’s secession from the United States
They call it #Calexit. It will prove to be a flash in the pan. But still:
1/ If Trump wins I am announcing and funding a legitimate campaign for California to become its own nation.
—Shervin (@shervin) Nov. 9, 2016
And California does have the world’s sixth-largest economy. And the “Yes California Independence Campaign” did hold a meetup last night in Sacramento.
See also:
A third of all House Democrats now hail from three states (CA, NY, MA). California alone accounts for 20% of the House Democratic caucus.
—Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) Nov. 9, 2016
↩︎ posted Nov. 10, 2016
The folly of the masses has replaced the wisdom of crowds as the dominant theme in polite discourse... All that really remains of liberalism is fear of the future.
John Gray diagnoses us as post-liberal, and reminds us that the middle class has thrown in with despots as often as with democracy.
↩︎ New Statesman, posted Nov. 8, 2016
Throwing in the towel on democracy
On Sunday, the weekend before the election, the New York Times decided to give op-ed space to the chancellor of the International League of Monarchists—a distant relative of Leo Tolstoy and a UKIP candidate—to cite Edward Gibbon and implore America to give up the vote.
↩︎ posted Nov. 8, 2016
Democracies have dynasties, too
Hereditary rule wasn’t exactly on the agenda at the framing of the Constitution. But If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, two families will have ruled America for 24 of the last 32 years. (This would have been guaranteed if Jeb Bush had prevailed in his primary.)
Then again, politics have always been a family affair in the US: half the first Congress served alongside a close relative. From the 19th-century Adams to the Udalls, Bushes, Murkowskis, Kennedys, and even the ascendant identical Castro twins, the tendency continues for Americans to elect families, perhaps because their names act as brands to orient voters through our thicket of elections.
↩︎ posted Nov. 8, 2016
A quick tutorial on some of the ways in which the democratic process can go wrong.
↩︎ posted Nov. 8, 2016
It’s certainly instructive to look across the Atlantic at the increasingly spiteful and vulgar Presidential election in America—a race to the bottom in which, over a matter of weeks, one of two deeply divisive individuals will be elected Head of State. Who could sensibly want to replace what we here enjoy with such a system?
The Brits still think they’re better than us.
↩︎ Spalding Today, posted Nov. 8, 2016
“Mouthbreathing Machiavellis Dream of a Silicon Reich”
Would a CEO of America be more like a monarch or a president? You can get rid of them, but their power is closer to absolute. Let’s hope we don’t have to find out how this harebrained Silicon Valley fetish for total corporate despotism would qualify.
↩︎ posted Nov. 8, 2016
In case you need to stick your head in the sand and stream away Election Day—after voting, of course—we suggest The Crown, new on Netflix.
↩︎ posted Nov. 8, 2016