The unity that the death of Queen Elizabeth II brought to the United Kingdom last fall offers a provocative contrast to the division characteristic of American democracy as we head into a presidential election next year.
British electoral politics can be as vicious as ours. If ideological animosities within the Conservative Party are less sharp than those among Republicans today, the infighting is hardly less intense. Here the question is whether Donald Trump will again be the GOP nominee. There the question is how long Rishi Sunak will last after two Conservative prime ministers fell in 2022.
But the Queen stood outside of electoral politics. She was revered—not only in her own kingdom but by millions of Americans. Her reputation around the world outshone that of almost any elected leader. Is there still something to be said for monarchy, even in this democratic age?
The Queen was a symbol of the kingdom in a way that no party leader, here or in Britain, can be a symbol of the nation. Americans often rally to a president in times of emergency or of triumph, but normally the president is a figure of contention, and since the end of the Cold War the contention has only grown more acrimonious. As the country has become more culturally diverse—and integrated into a global economy—our politics has become less rooted in local custom, which in earlier eras complicated, if not counterbalanced, ideological zeal. The result is that our two major parties represent, in effect, two different countries, and talk of “national divorce” comes as no surprise.
