The topsy-turvy world of an American monarchy

As a descendant of United Empire Loyalists, the American Revolution doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling. Ancestors who survived it lost everything, fleeing to the rocky shores of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for hardscrabble lives of fishing and subsistence farming.

As the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaches, however, another revolution seems to be brewing which I would join in a heartbeat. At its centre is a blunt and simple reminder: “No Kings.”

Saturday was the second countrywide protest in the U.S. in support of this message. When President Donald Trump held his military parade in Washington on June 14 (his 79th birthday), parroting displays of armed power in the capitals of authoritarian states, “No Kings” rallies were held elsewhere at the same time.

While the White House and Trump’s minions in government dearly want to label such events as “insurrections,” they are instead affirmations of why the United States exists at all. They give the lie to the idea that somehow the Trumpites are conservatives, wanting to uphold conservative values in American society.

The Loyalists were, in fact, the conservative group back in 1776. They wanted to keep things the same, to continue as a British colony under an absentee king, George III. His administration was typically corrupt and incompetent — the normal state of affairs for the time. Tax money (less local deductions) flowed to the Crown. There was the irritation of British troops and their allies in garrison, but these were sources of security, not an army of occupation, and good money was made in keeping them fed and supplied.

Then came the revolution. The conservatives lost everything, and those who could fled the country. Their revolutionary opposition coalesced under their “liberal” leader, George Washington. He and his fellow liberals were the authors and signatories of the Declaration of Independence, and the formulators of the constitution and its amendments.

At its core of this liberal government, quite obviously, was the choice that never again would the new republic suffer the tyranny of a king. “No Kings.”

It will be interesting, as July 4 approaches, to see how Trump and his MAGA minions re-spin this story of the American Revolution. Undermining the constitution at every possible turn, reneging on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and asserting rule-by-decree from the (now gilded) Oval Office, Trump is clearly the man who would be king.

In an ironic twist of fate, the real conservatives in America today are actually on the opposing side. Those protesting authoritarian power are supporting the constitution, not overthrowing it. Those demanding rule of law, as the “founding fathers” envisioned it, are not a liberal danger to American freedom, but in fact are its defenders.

The only hope the Republican Party has of survival in a post-Trump era is to reclaim that original liberal vision of America, over a world dominated by and run for the benefit of kings and their elites.

Whether that royal entourage includes barons or billionaires doesn’t really matter. Such elites disregard the plight of ordinary people, which is why on Friday night before “No Kings” Day, Trump hosted a US$1 million-a-plate political fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.

While these elites airily dismiss health care, jobs, food security and affordable housing, that is not what the founders intended. The constitution was envisioned to be a living document, with each amendment trying to solve emerging issues related to the abuse of power. Those founders tried very hard to limit executive authority and ensure a balance of powers among the different levels and locations of government.

And that system has worked well enough, even through a bitter civil war and its aftermath — at least, until Trump. Yet almost seven million people participated in over 2,700 peaceful “No King” rallies last Saturday, even more than in June.

Trumpites used extremist language ahead of these protests, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s idiocies setting the tone: “The Democrat Party’s main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

Yet as they rail against these rallies as evidence of an antifa-led conspiracy (antifa means “anti-fascist”), MAGA minions across the country are only dialling up the heat against themselves. After all, to oppose fascism means “No Kings.”

So, their support of Trump’s efforts to become King Donald the First seems an odd way for the Republican party to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence from the British.

We will soon know, as these protests continue and grow, whether July 4 will mark the return of the American republic to its revolutionary and constitutional roots, or its death spiral into authoritarian despotism.

Those first founders wisely made all oaths of office to the constitution, to defend it “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” Later, others made the pledge of allegiance to the flag “and the Republic for which it stands.”

Not to a king, of any stripe or colour.

Peter Denton writes from his home in rural Manitoba.