America’s Sacrificial Kingship

Most people think that the American government is a democracy. Wrong! We are a republic, at least on paper. In a democracy the people would make decisions directly. In a republic decisions are made by the ruling class.

The executive branch of our government is, however, a sacrificial kingship. The President, who currently possesses the type of unchecked power that kings used to have, stands for election every four years and is subject to replacement. Thus, symbolically, every four or eight years we remove our king from office and replace him with another king.

But we at times go even further than that. Starting in 1840, every twenty years (i.e., 1860, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1940, 1960, 1980, and 2000) the President elected in that year has been subject to an additional sanction, resulting in a true sacrificial kingship:

• 1840 – William Henry Harrison (died)
• 1860 – Abraham Lincoln (assassinated)
• 1880 – James A. Garfield (assassinated)
• 1900 – William McKinley (assassinated)
• 1920 – Warren G. Harding (died)
• 1940 – Franklin D. Roosevelt (died)
• 1960 – John F. Kennedy (assassinated)
• 1980 – Ronald Reagan (assassinated, then resuscitated)
• 2000 – George W. Bush (descended into the pit, then reemerged into the world of the living)

Some say that this 20-year “curse” should be blamed on Tecumseh and his brother, since the first to die (Harrison) had defeated Tecumseh’s alliance. Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa, known as the Prophet, supposedly set a curse against Harrison and future White House occupants who became President during years with the same end number as Harrison. I say instead that this 20-year event is the recurring celebration of a system designed by Thomas Jefferson himself.

You may recall the part of Jefferson’s so-called Tree of Liberty letter in which he wrote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure.” Earlier in the letter, while discussing Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts, he also stated, “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.”

I believe that Jefferson knew that under a government like ours, the people could only preserve their liberties if they maintained a system of near-continuous rebellion. Therefore, we have constant wars to kill the patriots (at least every twenty years), and every twenty years we also sacrifice the President (who as our king represents the tyrant whom the people thus keep under control).

Note that the rules of the system have been altered in recent years as the tyrants grow in power. Ronald Reagan survived his assassination attempt (more on that subject later), and George W. Bush was triumphantly resurrected and anointed following his short journey in to the pit at Ground Zero (see my previous posts on the subject).

Will this Jeffersonian tradition continue to be celebrated? I doubt it. In a “globalized” society in which there will be no more patriots, and in which the only remaining tyrant will be the unassailable global government itself, new springs of blood will be needed to refresh the Tree of Liberty, new sources for its natural manure. People will continue to be sacrificed in an effort to keep the tree alive, but it won’t be any more of our tyrannical Presidents.

NEXT: Exactly why was John F. Kennedy killed? (Hint: It’s not what we have been told.)