MSNBC Analyst Blames ‘Weakness’ in American Character for Extensive Queen Elizabeth Coverage: It ‘Yearns for Era of Hereditary Privilege’
Speaking with Nicolle Wallace on the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, MSNBC’s Richard Stengel sounded a bit of a contrary note when he argued that a “weakness” in Americans makes them “yearn” for a return to “hereditary privilege.”
Wallace expressed some enthusiasm for the idea, but Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson did not agree.
Stengel, formerly of the Obama State Department, prefaced his remarks by saying he knows he’s “going to be the skunk at the garden party” amid the coverage. He then reminded viewers that it was the Queen’s “great-great-great-great-grandfather George III who we rebelled from to start the United States of America.”
After talking about colonialism prior to and during Elizabeth’s reign, he circled back to a topic Wallace brought up earlier about the density of coverage in American media about the Queen’s passing.
“I have to say to your earlier question, why why are news American news networks dedicating all of this time to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral? I think it’s a good question,” he said. “I mean, you know, I think it’s something — there’s a weakness in the American character that still yearns for that era of hereditary privilege, which is the very thing that that we escaped from.”
“So there, I’ve made myself the skunk at the garden party,” he said.
“No, I love it! We’re keeping it real,” said Wallace. She turned then to Robinson, who dissented from Stengel’s dis-scent. … (You know because of the skunk thing? It’s a pun. Shut up!)
Robinson pointed out that it is hard even for experienced journalists like BBC’s Katty Kay and NBC’s Keir Simmons to “get their minds around” the death of the Queen. He described the relationship Elizabeth had with the British people as “personal.”
“She was their mother, their grandmother. She was their constant,” he said.
He then addressed Stengel’s comments about the American interest in the Royal Family.
“You know, and Rick, I’m not sure that we so ‘yearn’ for this hereditary privilege,” said Robinson. “I think we we we enjoy seeing watching all the pomp and circumstance and following the soap opera of the of the royal family and the fairy tale aspect of it.”
“But I don’t know that that’s something we have any sort of deep hankering for,” said Robinson.
Robinson went on to wonder where the monarchy will fit in going forward without that personal connection that Queen Elizabeth enjoyed with the Commonwealth.
Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.
