"The Crown" Trumps Trump

It is rather fitting that Netflix released their original series The Crown at a time when Americans are probably wishing they were living in England, away from the ill wind of this election, sipping tea happily with queens and princes. While America is in turmoil about how its POC and minority communities are going to be treated under Trump, The Crown really really makes the viewer wish they could just be out duck shooting and having to choose between Clarence House and Buckingham Palace. Yet the show does not merely give us a point of nostalgia and escapism, but of comparison, pertinent to our tumultuous times.


Queen Elizabeth and Donald Trump could not be more different. Neither could Winston Churchill and Donald Trump, if you want to argue that President and PM are more similar positions. But since Donald would like to think of himself as a king, as a messiah to America, let's stick with Elizabeth. In episode two, one of the most stirring parts is when Elizabeth receives a letter from her grandmother addressing her new position as queen. Her grandmother points out that Elizabeth must put aside her personal self, Elizabeth Mountbatten, in favor of her royal self, Elizabeth Regina. The crown, she says, must always win. What the people need, must always come first.

 A great many people who voted for Trump did not vote for his person, but for the Republican party. Many did so fully acknowledging his problematic statements and disconcerting distortions of platforms, but they clung (and still cling) to a hope that the party and its representatives in the house, senate, and supreme court, will keep Trump in line and that he will simply be a vehicle for a greater good. This hope would not be abnormal or strange, except for the fact that Donald Trump so far shows no sense of relinquishing his personal self to be the best person the country really needs. He has carried on in arrogance, argument, and asinine behavior. His person has brought out a side of Americans that is far from the best representation of what life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should be.

Donald Trump's past is full of folly, and one could be moved to forgive him if he genuinely apologized and showed himself to now be a mature and changed man. But he hasn't, and affirmatives of party beliefs just don't seem trustworthy from a mouth that has spewed insults as its way of winning the hearts of Americans.

What American politics today lacks is that British sense of duty and restraint. By some miracle, when he takes the inaugural oath in January, our president elect will understand what it truly means to no longer be Donald Trump any more, but the president of the United States, a title which shouldn't be treated lightly nor too heavily. The president still must be, above all, a public servant, something candidates each year are forgetting more and more. And as the British constantly remind us through our televisions, a good servant quietly and dutifully acts, to make those he serves shine.

I hope and pray Mr. Trump learns to be quiet and truly humble. God save the President.