By Grover Norquist
Published: November 20 2007 20:15 | Last updated: November 20 2007 20:15
The US was founded as a constitutional republic. There were to be no kings, dukes or other rapscallions in the New Jerusalem.
Thomas Paine spoke for all of us in Common Sense, saying there was no role for hereditary monarchy in the new world: “For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and though himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them.”
America’s national constitution, written by representatives of 13 jealous states, even gives the federal government the task of guaranteeing a “republican form of government” in the states and adds: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States.” The queen of Hawaii had to go.
It could not be much clearer. No aristocracy. No king. No inherited titles...