Saturday, April 17, 2021

Anglo-Saxon What, Exactly?

 Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, she of the Qanon alignment, is trying to organize an "America First" csucus in the House of Representatives, dedicated--she says--to promoting "uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions"--whatever those are.

Well, if we go back to the real Anglo-Saxon period in England, we're talking about a society divided by kinship, into families and tribes. We're talking about a very loose national identity, rooted in a king (there were actually three Anglo-Saxon kingdoms). Is that the political tradition Greene is alluding to?

Or is she talking about the later English tradition, where all political power was held by wealthy male landowners--one in which she, as a woman, would be merely the chattel of her nearest male relative, whether husband, father or brothers?

Or the pre-Victorian tradition of "rotten boroughs," where the common people were represented in Parliament (and I use "represented' in the loosest of possible terms) by, again, wealthy landowners, often not even part of their own community, who essentially bought their seats from the local aristocrat?

I could go on...because if she even means the political traditions brought to this continent by "the founding fathers." then we are still speaking of a government operated by and for the benefit of white male property-holders. Of course, maybe that is what she means--especially the "white" and "property-holders" parts, at any rate.


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