Spot-on, Bob! As a card-carrying, certified Irishman (paternal side), I am not normally any sort of monarchist, but I agree fully with you that England's constitutional monarchy is indeed a huge unifying force for the UK in a time of need. As so many wise people have previously also pointed out over past decades (and centuries, even), cohesion, whether tribal, political, religious or political, is vital for the preservation of any contemporary civilisation.
Regrettably, America has now become so fragmentised and polarised (both culturally and socially) that like an aircraft exceeding its 'do-not-exceed' design limitations, it's beginning to show disturbing signs of breaking apart. That would of course be a grave tragedy, yet the danger is both very real and likely implicit if we don't take serious corrective action in the immediate future.
Unfortunately, a collective external threat is the usual motivation for such unification cohesion (perhaps the best example being the global threat the Axis Powers posed to the free world back in 1939). Will it take a suddenly VERY serious move by 'Vlad the Impaler Ras-Putin' to bring us all together, I find myself wondering?
Given the threat of the potential extinction of humanity (posed by nuclear weapons), such a common cause would in this particular instance be a most undesirable possibility, but it's something to give long and serious thought to, at any rate, as once again humanity poises on the brink of Armageddon. When one is dealing with a megalomaniac madman (like Vlad), anything is possible!
Asx for the UK, my Irish heritage irrespective of my sentiment here, I agree, "The Queen is dead, long live the King!" Let's hope that America finds its own way back to the path of wisdom, sagacity, and genuinely enlightened leadership soon, just as has Britain! [Perhaps we should have a constitutional monarchy, but without the same sort of centuries-long and highly nuanced back-history that has led to Britain's present (monarchical) unity, it's probably not in the cards for us now...]
