Claytoonz: Trumpin' the jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II
It’s the queen’s 70th year as the monarch of the United Kingdom. She is also the monarch and head of state of 14 Commonwealth realms, such as Canada, Jamaica, Belize, New Zealand, etc. Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-reigning monarch in English history. Queen Victoria is second with a 63-year reign from 1837 to 1901. We’ll never see a British monarch with a reign this long again, at least not in our lifetimes…probably.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, as most of the monarch’s functions are ceremonial, diplomatic, and representational. The Queen does appoint the prime minister and summons, prorogues, and dissolves Parliament. These duties are non-partisan and mostly ceremonial.
Prime Minister Harold Wilson (The Beatles mentioned him in “Tax Man”) requested Queen Elizabeth to dissolve Parliament in 1974 when he couldn’t form a coalition among the several parties to form a government (they are not simply a two-party government as we are). The queen obliged and new elections were held. In theory, the queen can dismiss the prime minister, but a monarch hasn’t done so since 1834 when King William IV told Lord Melbourne to get out of town (and he came back).
There are people in the United States who wish we had a monarchy, even though our Constitution strongly forbids it. Some envision a monarch who is head of state, like European monarchs who are non-partisan. Others believe we already have a monarch, a king, who’s been unjustly dismissed and robbed of his rule. These people confuse monarchy with fascism.
The people who believe Trump won the election he lost, and have zero proof to prove it, want a fascist leader who isn’t elected or even appointed, but one who takes leadership in a coup. They demand that he be reinstated, which is not constitutional. They wanted the certification of our current president’s victory halted, which is also unconstitutional. They wanted alternative electors to appoint Donald Trump to the presidency, which is another thing that’s unconstitutional.
Donald Trump believes he is king. He believes simple acts such as not applauding for him amount to treason. Ivanka Trump believes she is a princess and the Trumps are a royal family. This family believes laws should not apply to them. Their associates use their closeness to Trump to argue that laws shouldn’t apply to them. These self-proclaimed royals believe something becomes fact when they say it is.
Donald Trump campaigns against people for being disloyal, not to the Constitution, but to him personally. The most damaging accusation against a Republican today is being deemed insufficiently loyal to Donald Trump.
Trumpers want a fascist monarchy. Have you seen those idiots at the hate rallies wearing T-shirts of the Trump line of succession? Basically, they want every Trump to have a turn at the presidency if we’re still going to call it “presidency.”
Congratulations to the queen on her 70 years as monarch. And congratulations to us for ending our fascist monarchy at four.
Clay Jones is the 2022 recipient of the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award in Editorial Cartooning, and won a 2021 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists. He was a finalist for the Herblock Prize in 2019 and a finalist for the National Headliner Award in 2020. See more award-winning editorial cartoons from him at Claytoonz.com.
