“Elizabeth, he said, is the “antithesis” of what America stands for.”
The money quote of this article.
Even “friendly” Europeans, like SOME of the Brits, have a really hard time understanding this most basic characteristic of REAL Americans; we despise class stratification. Even our cousins in Canada, can’t seem to grasp this about us.
All the more shocking to me then, when an openly traitorous, arrogant effete, elitist snob (”Don’t you know who I am?”), like John Kerry received votes from tens of millions Americans.
I think our national values somewhat diverge. Most of your countrymen view them as useless spoiled brats put in there for tourist money. To us they are part of the institution: her portrait appears on our coins and on the walls of high-ranking elected officials’ offices, and in our legal system we swear oaths and/or affirmations in her name, and all criminal cases are fought in the name of “Regina vs [defendant]”.
Much of New Zealand’s current constitutional arrangements will have no meaning if the Queen’s name is removed. And the Queen herself in fact has a lot of informal powers to give advices and warnings to the Prime Ministers (primarily Britain, but also of Commonwealth Realms).
In contrast, you have gone down a different path since the US Revolutionary War (or what we would call the US War of Independence) where the institution is not built around a monarchy. In fact if I have to digest, I’m quite sure the US Founding Fathers have considered the possibility of how the modern Westminster system will come into being and they rejected the system.
I’m not a monarchist myself, but I can see why many of my fellow New Zealanders remain attached to it.