King Harald and Queen Sonja recently caused some controversy after making comments about Americans.
On 8 November, their daughter, Princess Märtha Louise, announced she would step back from royal duties and relinquish her patronages.
The Norwegian Royal Court said: ”Princess Märtha Louise wishes to differentiate more clearly between her own activities and her relationship with the Royal House of Norway. The Princess has therefore decided, in consultation with His Majesty The King and other close family members, that she will not carry out official duties for the Royal House at the present time.”
The King and Queen spoke to the media after the announcement and said Americans don’t understand the concept of royalty. They said this in response to some of their future son-in-law’s actions and said: “Americans have no idea what a kingdom is. So it’s no wonder he doesn’t realise. Americans don’t understand the bearing of this here. They don’t. He thought he could do whatever he wanted without compromising us at all.”
Some took offence to these comments, but as an American, I think they are right. Why?
We do not know what a kingdom really is; we can’t understand what it is like to live in a country like that. We live in a presidential system where we elect our head of state every four years; it isn’t hereditary. While certain families have considerable power (i.e. the Kennedys or the Bushes), we do not have one family that sits on a throne and reigns.
Our entire country was founded on the idea of getting away from the monarchy. We fought the Revolutionary War and chose to have a different governing system after winning. We did not want one family to sit on a throne, and as such, we are raised in a completely different system and atmosphere. It’s natural that we wouldn’t understand what it’s like to be in a kingdom. It doesn’t exist for us. It’s hard to understand something you’ve not experienced completely.
In America, we are used to controversies and politicians getting embroiled in many different things. At this point, nothing really surprises us anymore with our leaders. For countries with monarchies, they have that constant, neutral head of state which primarily stays out of controversy and getting tangled up in scandals.
Our tax dollars do not contribute to a monarchy; our money goes to the President and Congress. If we don’t like what they’ve done, we can vote them out of office. Getting a referendum to abolish a monarchy is a lot harder.
To take offence to Their Majesties’ words is to truly not understand the system of a monarchy. We can’t truly understand that system just like our British, Norwegian or Swedish friends can’t understand our presidential system. They are worlds apart, and that’s okay. Not every country is meant to be a kingdom, just like not every country is meant to have a presidential system.
