Yet if British politics has lately been ugly, grant it this much: at least they don’t have to stand for bad leaders. Truss was never a saint or a sun god; she was merely the current leader of the Conservative Party. Ho hum. No “Hail to the Chief” required: political power in the UK is far more desacralized than it is here. And once Truss became a liability, once the pound and the polls went south, she got the boot.
Contrast that now with our presidential system. Short of impeachment or the ballyhooed 25th Amendment, Americans have no instrument for ousting our presidents. If we elect Joe Biden, we’re stuck with Joe Biden, even if Joe Biden keeps gaffing ahead the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock, even if it’s not entirely clear Joe Biden is running the country. The head of politics is also the head of state. We both elect him and pay for him to live in a palace. This can lead to a kind of masquerade feeling, where everyone in government smiles and pretends everything is normal even if their boss is saying things like “Let me start off with two words: made in America.” …
I’m not endorsing parliamentary democracy or constitutional monarchy by any means. Yet let’s be honest: doesn’t carting away lousy leaders look pretty good right about now?
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