I hate the very concept of monarchy in an instinctive and emotional way, as a red-blooded small r republican American should. Any argument the Hoppe crowd is likely to make for it is probably not gonna be received well.
But when my heterosexual man-crush Andrew Heaton says something positive about the institution in the UK, I'm actually gonna listen.
The Knoxville Journal once opined: "Great Britain is a republic with a hereditary President, while the United States is a monarchy with an elected King"
Essentially, Heaton's argument boils down to this... The British monarchs have no real political power over things like decisions about war or taxes or whatever, and they've largely separated present day monarchial functions from state functions similar to America's separation of church and state. What are those functions?
Well... you know how human nature has these urges for violence and bloodlust and tribal battles that we've funnelled into watching football, which is much better than war? Or how human nature has an aspect of selfishness that we've funnelled through relative capitalism into providing rewards for serving our fellow man rather than subjugating our fellow man?
He argues that one of these aspects of human nature is a desire for reverence. In the UK, he argues, that is largely placed by the willing public upon the crown which doesn't use that reverence to advance major political power, while everyone kinda sees the Prime Minister as a bureaucratic functionary largely open to ridicule that they can change on whims and doesn't even get basic respect along with the office. In America, the public often falls victim to cults of personality that do wield political power, such as Trump or Obama, and opposition to the same from the just as invested opposition. This, the argument goes, is because the mascot of the state is seated on the throne that wields the power of the state simultaneously.
I'm not sure I'm sold for a variety of reasons, but it's certainly one of the best arguments for monarchy I've heard so far.
Humans may desire reverence and we should guard against placing that reverence upon politicians, but I'm not sure that a neutered monarchy could ever work in our country or should be something we would desire over where we place better reverence already. I mean... give me Dolly Parton or Keanu Reeves, Chuck Norris or John Wayne... hell, Harambe or Betty White over any King Charles any day of the week.
