The man who thinks he would be king

             Recently the King of Thailand died after a reign of over 70 years. If you’re like me you probably didn’t even know that Thailand had a monarchy. I kind of thought that the whole royalty stuff was just an antiquated European thing but in doing a little Wiki research I see that it’s not.

            There are over 40 sovereign countries that still have a monarch with about a third of those being former British colonies that still consider Queen Elizabeth as royalty. The rest can be found on every continent except Antarctica unless you want to count Emperor Penguins as royalty. There are lots of different titles, king, queen, emperor, sultan, sovereign prince, emir, even pope and they’re all considered royalty.

            I’ve always wondered about people’s fascination with royalty in particular the British royal family. I remember how crazy Americans were about the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. It was shown live on TV and you could buy all sorts of commemorative plates and crap.

I also vividly remember when Princes Diana died because I was in Paris that night celebrating our wedding anniversary with my own “Lady Di”. We were staying with my father and I remember him being fixated on the news, I couldn’t understand why this was any bigger deal than anyone else being killed in an auto accident. But that’s one of the things about royalty; we the people are the ones that put them on the pedestal, we are the ones that give them super powers or should I say super status.

What we tend to forget is how these mere mortals came to be royalty. At some point in their family history an ancestor conquered someone else’s ancestor. They took the land and everything on it and said “it now belongs to me and my decedents but if you work for me and/or pay me I will let you live here and I will protect you.”

In essence the modern day royals are kind of like parents of adult children. Their subjects love and respect them, they let them sit at the head of the table and give advice but they don’t have to listen to them if they don’t want too.

Here in the United States we don’t have royalty anymore because way back in the beginning we fought a war to break free from the crown. I’m not sure if the founding fathers actually had a problem with the concept of being under a monarchy but they sure had a problem with the bureaucratic tax system that was built around it.

Even though we don’t have actual monarchs we still try and create royalty from our entertainers, politicians, business leaders, and wealthy families. In my lifetime I’ve seen the Kennedy White House called Camelot, Elvis the King of rock & roll, Steve McQueen the King of Cool, Michael Jackson the King of Pop, Aretha Franklin the Queen of Soul, and Prince being Prince. In politics we may not have too many royals but we do have dynasties. The Bush’s, the Romney’s, the Kennedy’s, the Rockefeller’s, the Brown’s here in California, and maybe the Clinton’s.

So all this royalty stuff brings me to our current situation on the election front. I think that one of the things that make Donald Trump popular with millions of American people is (for lack of a better phrase) that he’s a “royal wannabe”. It really feels like in his eyes being President is the same as being King of America. Because he’s an entertainer, politician, and wealthy businessman many voters do consider him “American Royalty”.

Since we already equated royalty with parents maybe that’s why so many people will still vote for Trump. He’s not afraid to tell them what he thinks or what they should do and he’s promising to keep them safe, just like daddy.

On Election Day the choice for many will come down to King-Daddy Donald or Dynasty-Mommy Hilary. I know this worries a lot of you because neither one is the greatest of choices but I’m here to say, don’t worry because it really doesn’t matter. I believe that the current American presidency is like a modern monarchy, there is much pomp and circumstance but you can’t get anything done because just like in 1776 the bureaucracy is broken.

            Short of another revolution I’m not sure if the system will ever get fixed but since I already voted by mail I’m just going to sit back, watch a little reality TV until I get bored, then I’m going to turn it off and go on with my life.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 15 of the following link. Winters Express 10/20/16