Duty. It is a meaningful word, mostly for the difficulty the concept imposes. As a concept it has been mostly trampled and stampeded into the ground, particularly by political figures.
The death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving sovereign in British history, will be steeped in ceremony, ritual and pageantry. Her death marks the end of a single life that transited an epic era of humanity’s story. In the end, Queen Elizabeth II did something extraordinary. She achieved something that is abidingly rare. She kept the faith. She kept her promise. She did exactly what she said she would do on the occasion of her 21st birthday, when she delivered a speech and said the following:
“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”
She did just this for 70 years. She did not promise peace, justice, errancy, or perfection. She simply committed to serving the British people for the rest of her life.
American politicians who are elected to office take an oath to the US constitution. Most every single elected Republican member of Congress has desecrated that oath. They failed in their duty. They broke the faith. They broke their promise.