With all the excitement surrounding the royal wedding in the UK, I was reminded again of a major flaw in our Constitution. Our Founding Fathers made the Chief of State and the Head of Government the same person, and it hasn’t worked well.
Almost every major democracy splits those two functions. Japan has a Prime Minister and an Emperor. The UK has a Prime Minister and a Queen, Germany a Chancellor and a President, Belgium a Prime Minister (sometimes) and a King. The Head of Government is the politician. You can dislike him or her with no feeling of guilt. The Chief of State, on the other hand, is the symbolic leader of the nation--the person who visits the sick troops in the hospital, tours the natural disaster area, comforts the populace in time of national turmoil. Everybody loves the Chief of State.
When you mix the two, as in the U.S., it gets confusing. President Obama visited Tuscaloosa today and was genuinely moved by the devastation, yet I’m sure there were many people who thought this was just a form of campaigning for the 2012 election. If the Queen had visited, no one would have questioned her motives. Perhaps we could borrow that young woman Kate who was married today. She seems nice.
Note: Linda C. was interviewed this evening on a show called the “Young Turks” on MSNBC. She explained why the Ryan budget is such a bad deal for Medicare and the American people. She was excellent.
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