Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Weigel on Monarchy

I never thought I would ever endorse an article by American Catholic neoconservative George Weigel, but "The Uses of Monarchy" isn't bad, considering his perspective. (Mr. Weigel in his writings critical of traditionalist Catholics has not demonstrated much sympathy for French royalism, but then the modern French royalist tradition has been more overtly anti-democratic than most.) Indeed, former King Juan Carlos would be a much better candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize than many of those who have actually won it. What Mr. Weigel reports about Francisco Franco disproves the claims of both those on the Left who imagine that Franco was some sort of monstrous "Fascist" and those on the far Right who imagine that El Caudillo expected his authoritarian regime to last forever but was somehow betrayed by the King he chose.

1 comment:

Aaron Traas said...

Wow... something from Weigel that I agree with. That's pretty unusual.

Good insights here. Fascism and monarchy as a transitional tool. A priest friend of mine once opined that he thought there would be a future for fascism in Europe, particularly France, as they are presented with a low birthrate and an influx of immigrants that are hostile to the European culture and way of life. Liberal democracy, he said, didn't have the tools to deal with such a threat. Autocratic regimes such as fascism do, as they dispense with language of rights and egalite, and can deal with the practical matter. That does not make fascism any more good, per se, and a strong monarchy will in all cases be better still, but if the alternative is communism or another regime hostile to the traditional culture of a place, perhaps it can be suffered for a time.