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Americans can't resist a dynasty

Forget democracy; we want our kings back

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Click here to read a (partial) archive of past Britt Combs columns.

By Britt Combs | The McDowell News

Published: December 17, 2008

It was a lot of fun back in 2000 and 2001 making fun of New York. They had elected as senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, based on nothing other than her massive entitlement. She had no connection to New York.
Her campaign revealed a bungling ignorance of New York culture and New York politics. Her clownish claims to have been a life-long Yankees baseball fan didn't seem to convince anyone. She made the massive error of stating that she hoped and intended to march in New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade, oblivious to the fact that New York Democratics have long boycotted the parade as an expression of solidarity with the gay community, who are banned from the celebration.
But a Clinton can be forgiven anything. They elected her and it was tremendous fun teasing them about it, but then North Carolina elected Elizabeth Dole to the senate. How embarrassing. A woman who had only the most tenuous connection to the state – she lived here as a girl – got the seat mainly as a consolation prize for her husband, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, who carried North Carolina in the 1996 presidential election. Rats!
Now both states are rid of their carpetbagger senators, and we seem a bit less pathetic for it. But now New York seems prepared, yet again, to put the carpetbagger brat of an entitled dynasty in the senate. The talking heads are abuzz with talk of Caroline Kennedy becoming New York's new favorite daughter.
The state is not new to this sort of thing. They made the late Bob Kennedy their senator back in 1964. He had nothing to do with the state other than driving through it, pretty much, but a Kennedy is a Kennedy is a Kennedy, it was reckoned, and Lord knows we owe them whatever we can give them.
It all goes to show that Americans love a dynasty. We can't resist them. Whether they are Roosevelts, Kennedys, Clintons, Tafts, Rockefellers, Doles, DuPonts or (preserve us!) Bushes, we are somehow beholden to them. We can deny them nothing. It's bizarre.
I think there's a basic, fundamental, instinctive need to have a king, a chief, a monarch we can look to and call permanent and unassailable; both a hero and a scapegoat.
Recently in this space, we talked about the Israelites' need for a king. They rejected the government of the Judges to put Saul on the throne. That tendency manifests itself throughout history.
When the English execution of King Charles I led to Oliver Cromwell's republican commonwealth, it was a short-lived reform for a people whose cultural identity revolved largely around fealty to the throne. Soon the monarchy was restored with the crowning of Charles II.
A king defines for a people who they are. His blood and his fortunes are his identity. We each know who we are as individuals and as families, but to have an identity as a greater national community requires some unquestionable common force.
This is particularly true in a multi-state, multi-ethnic, trans-continental political body like the United States. When Lincoln and his Republicans remade the U.S. from a body of states into a singular, expansive super-state (from "these" United States to "the" United States), they gained much. But they lost the cohesive identity each state possessed that naturally formed their identity and sense of community. The new singular aggregate people they formed were too diverse in character, religion, politics, industry and dialect to have a natural affinity for one another, and the only substitute for that sense of belonging was the enshrinement of symbols and ritual demonstrations of fealty – hence the development of ceremonies like the "Pledge of Allegiance."
The U.S. flag is, of course, lovely, and represents several good and noble things. But there's a basic human longing for something more substantial and less abstract to which to attach one's loyalty.
Leaders, like everyone else, die, and democratically elected leaders in a society that specifically forbids titles of nobility lack the permanence of monarchs. That's why we are irresistibly drawn to our own unique American kings and queens.
Sooner or later, I think, we'll make it official. We'll elevate one of our de facto Noble Houses to a new throne. I think it would be a hoot to let them fight to the death for it, a sort of cross between the Roman arena and American Idol. We can only hope.

Reporter, writer, cultural commentator and crafter of sarcastic witticisms Britt Combs writes for The McDowell News. He can address your civic group, Sunday School class, militia meeting, graduating class or any assembly of roused rabble.