As we celebrate Independence Day, let’s harken back to the history of one of the reasons we fought for our independence.
King George III had a medical condition which resulted in frequent bouts of madness. During these “fits,” he became delusional and abused his government ministers and his subjects, including the American colonists earnestly petitioning for redress of their grievances. For at least a decade, Americans using their early newspapers debated the issues, and began to form a consensus among the various colonies, with great reluctance, that they faced a common enemy in their sovereign.
Those surrounding the king had no choice but to literally intervene to gag and bind him to prevent him from issuing crazy declarations that would have destroyed Britain’s rapid ascent as the modern world’s first true superpower. Alas, it was too little, too late to preserve the relationship between the American colonies and the Crown.
King George restrained to protect Britain from his madness
Even the “divine rights” of kings had limits when the the monarch’s incapacity to serve became obvious and dangerous. Responsible parties had to summon up their courage to confront the threat, even though some of their countrymen, unaware or disbelieving of the severity of the government crisis, cried treason.
In nearby France at roughly the same time, Louis XVI was delusional in the sense that he refused to acknowledge the desperate suffering of his people, and, against all evidence, believed himself to be so popular that his subjects would never revolt against his rule. Things ended somewhat more badly for him, his family and his court than simply being bound and gagged. For years to come France was convulsed with bloody civil war as revolution and counter-revolution extracted a toll on the people that made what the Americans experienced pale by comparison.
Today we need a similar intervention, by those responsible for exercising Constitutional checks and balances against encroaching tyranny, to restrain a government gone mad. No matter where you are on our spectrum of polarized politics, it has become clear that the people’s business is not getting done, no matter how it is defined. It feels like we are but a few steps away from losing the democracy we have fought to protect for over two centuries, and there is no way that that it will not end badly for all of us.
Let’s all do our part in pushing him over the edge in the only language he speaks and understands. Tweet, post your support for exercising the 25th Amendment on the social media platform of your choice, or sign the petition, and begin taking our democracy back from fake populism and the Russians. Mike Pence will need to go as well, since he is up to his neck in the Russian collusion and coverup, but let’s focus on one thing at a time.
Scene from "The Madness of King George" where the king is finally restrained
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