President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a political genius, who personally orchestrated every detail of history’s first visit from their Britannic Majesties to American soil.
The king descended into George Washington’s burial crypt to lay a red, white and blue wreath on the sarcophagus of his ancestor’s greatest nemesis. Apparently he was overwhelmed by the occasion, reportedly saying, “very interesting.”
The visit was arranged on the edge of the Second World War, and its purpose was to deepen the Anglo-American relationship and prepare for the inevitability of war. The “special relationship” did not yet exist. There was deep isolationist sentiment in the United States where the concerns of the British Empire were not top of mind for the American people. Yet, foreshadowing America’s enduring fascination with the royalty we overthrew, hundreds of thousands of Americans came forward to cheer the king and queen everywhere they went.
The vice president of the United States was “Cactus Jack” Garner. He shocked the congressional greeting party when he spotted the arriving king and queen and shouted out loud, “The British are coming!”
Later, at one of the most infamous garden parties in Washington, DC, history, he would throw his arm casually around Prince William’s great grandfather, slapping him on the back. This appalled Harold Ickes, who skipped the garden party to attend a competing Lyndon Johnson’s stag party instead. When he heard of the manhandling of the king by “Cactus Jack,” he said he had “no natural dignity, and showed no more than he would have shown at a church dinner in Uvalde, Texas.”
War preparation against the Royal family’s Nazi relatives and Nazi Germany was the true purpose of the Royal visit, but that was obscured by the eruption of a great scandal caused by the dearth of invitations for Washington, DC, political reporters to attend a garden party at the British Embassy. The reputation of Lady Lindsay, the ambassador’s wife, never recovered.
Upon escaping the common savagery of the 76th Congress, their Majesties headed to New York City, where they were greeted with an editorial that perfectly encapsulates the current difficulty between our peoples. The editorial proclaimed America’s affinity for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth by not just saying, “we like them,” but thirsting for their approval by plaintively hoping that they “like us.” It has been so ever since.
Americans want to be accepted and liked by the British upper crust we overthrew for some reason. We have a certain inexplicable neediness in this regard. It is among our many national contradictions. We seem to melt at the feet of the diffident British Royals.
It’s an “us and them” problem, and one of us has angered a bunch of them. Making the situation even more explosive, one of them has stood up for one of us. Apparently, like scores of Britons, he has rejected the oppressive class structure and anachronistic institution that proclaims a right to rule on the basis of birthright and genetics, and fled to America.
Apparently he has done so to protect his wife and children from the vicious madness and predations of the corrupt British media that killed his mother and threatened his wife’s sanity and happiness.
Meghan Markle is an American and that appears to be the problem, or at least a quarter of it. She is also an actress from California, with a degree from Northwestern University, who was — god forbid — divorced. What would Henry VIII have thought?
Her ruthlessness and viciousness are hard to overstate unless compared to her appalling rudeness and lack of self-awareness. The bi-racial American overstepped. A more sophisticated and cultured person would have known better.
Her presence — tolerable on the television screen — became intolerable in the flesh apparently by pressing common flesh against the Royal flesh, if I understand the affront correctly.
Here is what happened. Thirty-five-year-old Prince William Arthur Phillip Louis Mountbatten Windsor became enraged because his younger brother’s girlfriend failed to curtsy to him when they met. Even worse, she greeted him with a hug. Worse than that was that she did it to the 32-year-old Duchess of Cambridge as well. How could she?
Appalling. Truly. How dare she. My god. Didn’t she know who she was talking to? Didn’t she know who she was standing in front of?
How could she not? She was speaking to the first born son of Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, who once dreamed of being a tampon so that he could remain close to his beloved mistress, the former Mrs. Shand, who will soon be the Queen of Australia, Canada and Jamaica.
Speaking of her Majesty the Queen Consort of Australia, Canada and Jamaica, it is indisputable that she was regarded as a villainous figure in the British media in 1997. Prince Harry didn’t call her a “villain” like it is being widely reported in the dishonest British press. He observed that she was considered one. He further observed — with absolute precision — that she embarked on a two decade-long public relations campaign to become viewed as acceptable to both Queen Elizabeth and the British public.
The first born son was treated differently than the second son. Apparently the second son was the one who the father targeted for emotional abuse by repeatedly joking about his paternity and insinuating he wasn’t Harry’s father.
Speaking of Jamaica and colonialism, I finally understand this photo:
I’ll admit, it disoriented me and led to a category of false assumption that I am usually allergic towards. It is standard fare for both the British and American media to immunize their preferred brands by blaming staff for their stupidity. I have walked many miles in these shoes as I was blamed for picking the astronomically incompetent Sarah Palin for vice president. The 72-year-old war hero, US Senator and Republican nominee John McCain was inoculated from his recklessness because he was in a protected class. He was a seducer without peer, and understood the access game better than any American politician who ever lived.
At first I presumed that William and Kate were ill-served by grotesquely incompetent palace courtiers who are more skilled at leaking and disparaging than international diplomacy and image-making. I was wrong.
This picture represents William and Kate’s worldview. It is a reflection of how they see themselves. It is their self-portrait. They are born to rule from a station above. They are serious people, and they are to be taken seriously. They are Earth’s youngest anachronisms. They are frozen in amber from a world that doesn’t exist outside of the imaginations of the palace walls. Inside those walls, the fairy tale is the life of privilege that has convinced an apparently aggrieved young man that he is better than everyone else because his blood is royal, and all of ours isn’t.
Last year, I had the good fortune to spend a long day of fun cruising up the North coast of Jamaica from a tiny fishing village called Oracabessa to Port Antonio. My driver was a quintessentially Jamaican woman named Barbara. She was funny and alive with a laugh that could break down walls. She was a joy to be with as we stopped for Johnnycakes and Red Stripe along the way. I learned something from her that I didn’t know, despite my being to Jamaica many times. It was something that never occurred to me.
It is very difficult for the average Jamaican to access the beach in their own country surrounded by some of the most beautiful ocean water in the world. That is colonialism. It is why the British monarchy will endure in England, but not in Jamaica and Australia.
The monarchy’s last chance to modernize has passed. The Royal family made their choice. The snobbishness which is deeply attached to a sense of blood line superiority won’t survive the first half of the 21st century across the Commonwealth of nations. They will substantially reject both Charles and the angry Prince of Wales.
Throughout his book, Prince Harry details the instances during which Prince William put a finger in either his face, or that of his wife. There is no excuse for that conduct. It marks and identifies William as a royal bully. Apparently his goofiness, which can be misidentified for an awkward friendliness, is a façade to obscure his imperiousness.
Prince Harry did what a man is supposed to do. He has put his wife and children first. He has protected them from abuse and assault. He has protected them from a viciousness and dishonesty that is difficult for almost everyone who hasn’t been smeared by the media to possibly understand.
Prince Harry has told the truth about his life in a straightforward and transparent manner. He has changed the rules of the game. He has lifted his voice against the anonymous sources who come from exactly where he said they come from. The silence of the Royal family with regard to what he has said is not a function of their dignity. It is a product of their shame.
Bravo, Steve!
You have perfectly explained what is happening between Harry and the rest of his family. As well as the American fascination with British royalty.
I’ll admit that I haven’t understood that fascination, except for the few times when their humanity “leaks” out. Weddings, funerals, family dysfunction. Perhaps those are the moments when people can say, “they’re just like us.”
But they don’t think they are. As you said, the monarchy has lost its chance to modernize and be relevant. Good riddance.
What courage it is taking for Harry to speak this truth. Thank you for both supporting him and speaking the truth yourself.