Is America losing faith in democracy? Are we slowly releasing our grip on a grand experiment that some believe should be held onto firmly, no matter the consequences? Or are greater numbers arriving at an inevitable disillusionment, as one does when they realize that the water they see in the distance is just a mirage? We’ve chased this particular mirage far into the desert, and the unspoken conclusion is that we should’ve never chased it in the first place. The illusion of democracy creates unjustifiable dreams in far too many people. Politicians and candidates spout fantasies, dreams that will manifest if they should be elected. The Promised Land never emerges, and the loss of hope instills intense resentment among those who believed the lies.
We should never have indulged the fantasies that come with the democratically-elected Presidency. Who does the President represent, anyway. Has his many incarnations really ever represented us at all? Eight years of some new huckster, borne aloft by his skill at weaving fantasies, spends his tenure as a short-lived activist, ensuring his agenda is fulfilled, never our own. The ideal President would be one who does almost nothing, aside from ensuring the well-oiling of the clockwork machine created by our Founders. But we have had nothing but an unbroken succession of activist Presidents, each throwing the nation manufactured chaos as he makes good on the promises made to his wealthy and influential supporters.
The greatest mistake our nation ever made was made in its infancy, and made by arguably its greatest hero. George Washington retired after two terms to his farm, setting the standard for American Presidents ever since. What would our nation look like now if he’d remained President until his death in 1799, passing the baton to either to one of his three children, or to another of the Founders.
As anathema as it might be to the public conscience, America should have established a hereditary monarchy, of Washington, Jefferson, and Adams. Imagine an unbroken lineage of Adams’ on an American throne and ask yourself honestly if we’d be better off. We most certainly would. Imagine a direct descendant of Jefferson currently sitting on an American throne, us free of the societal fracturing that results from Presidential elections.
Imagine an Eisenhower remaining in office until his death in 1969. A far steadier and sturdier nation would have resulted than what we’d got.
A forgotten tidbit of American history is that, in 1789, America almost did get a king, albeit a Prussian one. In that year, as the relatively weak and disordered nation struggled to maintain control, held together by the Articles of Confederation, Nathanial Gorham (president of the Continental Congress at that time), wrote to Prince Henry of Prussia, son of none other than Frederick the Great. Prince Henry was offered to accept the role of King of the United States. How would history have panned out, had we been ruled over by a Prussian instead of this 8-year succession of grifters and activists?
Democracy eventually ends in dictatorship, so why not head off that inevitability by establishing a constitutional monarchy? Why not establish a university, in the vein of West Point, that breeds future rulers? Why not something, anything, other than what we have now? But we know it won’t happen.
America will cling to democracy as one clings to an opiate addiction, even as it takes its final, narcotic breath.
