Queen Elizabeth II was the real thing

SAN DIEGO, Calif.- I don’t know about you, but I need a break from politics. We just breezed past Labor Day, the traditional start of the election season. And already, I’m sick of both parties.

Lately, I can’t decide which tribe is more insufferable. Behind Door No. 1: Hypocritical Democrats, who defended Magistrate Judge Bruce

Reinhart against critics for approving a search warrant for the Mar-a-Lago residence of former President Donald

Trump and then turned around and criticized U.S. District

Judge Aileen Cannon for effectively blocking the Justice

Department’s investigation by granting Trump’s request to have a special master review all evidence seized during the raid.

Behind Door No. 2: Shameless Republicans who are so desperate to be embraced by the working-class that they’re willing to engage in the same kind of class warfare that they used to lament all those times it was aimed at them. They can oppose President Biden’s plan to wipe out student loan debt without characterizing it as — in the words of conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt — a massive “bailout of the wealthy in the United States.”

During my sabbatical from politics, I’m following the advice of my wife of 20 years. When choosing what to write about, she suggests, don’t try to guess the “hot” topic. Just write about whatever you can’t stop talking about, thinking about, or discussing with family and friends. If you’re interested in it, she says, chances are that others will be too.

Very well. At the moment, what I can’t stop thinking about is a royal send-off more than 5,000 miles away.

Queen Elizabeth II was loved and admired by so many not because she was flawless, or her family perfect, or her kingdom blameless for centuries of colonialism and oppression.

People in Africa, India, Ireland and many other places on the map know different, and they have the receipts. Fairy tales are of limited value. Reality is complicated, and seldom kind.

There was nothing kind about what a Carnegie Mellon University professor posted on Twitter before the 96-year-old monarch passed away.

“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying,” tweeted Uju Anya, a Nigerian-born linguistics professor at the university. “May her pain be excruciating.”

The university is trying to put some distance between itself and Anya, calling her tweets “offensive and objectionable.”

Twitter removed the professor’s initial tweet for violating its rules of conduct, which prohibit anyone from “wishing, hoping, or calling for serious harm on a person or group of people.”

Meanwhile, Anya isn’t backing down. In fact, in later tweets, she doubled down on her vitriol.

“If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star,” she wrote.

I do not wish to rewrite history. Nor do I wish for aggrieved people to abandon their grudges — some of which are justified. What I wish for is more civility, decency and maybe what used to be called “good manners.”

Elizabeth was the queen, not a prime minister; she saw 15 of those public servants come and go in seven decades, from Winston Churchill to the current occupant of the office, Liz Truss.

A queen is a ceremonial figure, not a policymaker. She is above all a national symbol, and what Elizabeth symbolized most — in more than 70 years on the throne — was duty, grace, strength, steadiness and dignity.

It’s fine that the queen has her critics. But the critics should be at least as dignified in expressing dissent as she was in bravely shepherding the United Kingdom from the age of just 25.

The flock loved their shepherd. Hundreds of thousands have turned out to pay their respects. Many have left behind cards and gifts expressing their affection and gratitude.

One handmade message perched atop a pile of flowers read: “Thank you for showing the world how strong a woman can be!”

Americans will never fully understand a monarchy. We’re not supposed to understand it. Nearly 250 years ago, our own brave shepherds fought a revolution so that, one day, we wouldn’t have to understand.

But we do understand love, strength, devotion and appreciation. And so we can understand why so many people are not quite sure how to feel about the prospect of living in a world that is missing Queen Elizabeth II.