Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Coulombe trounces republicans at Oxford Union

My friend Charles Coulombe, distinguished American monarchist, recently spoke in defence of the Monarchy at the prestigious Oxford Union. The motion against the monarchy was resoundingly defeated. Charles, the epitome of the high-spirited monarchist who has a lot more fun than his dreary republican opponents, recounts his experience in this delightful article for Taki's Magazine.

2 comments:

Flambeaux said...

How delightful. Thank you. I've shared it with many of my republican friends.

J.K. Baltzersen said...

It is delightful to hear of this monarchist debating victory, and I would have loved to watch it.

My impression from a distance is that the defeat was overwhelming.

That being said, I have something to say as a debater with some experience.

All else being equal, the opposing team does have an advantage over the proposing team. All the opposition needs to do is to attack all the weak points from the proposing team.

Of course, the republican case has a lot of weak points, and it is, thus, an easy case to demolish.

On the other hand, if the monarchists were on the proposing side and the motion were, e.g. "This house believes that the monarchy serves us better than a republic would," it would be more challenging for the monarchist side. An even more challenging motion would be "This house believes that monarchy serves freedom better than a republic."