IM-1776: Country Party Reprise

We have always yearned for a Patriot King

This week IM-1776 published my piece “Country Party Reprise”— an essay exploring the perennial struggle between Court and Country in American politics.

An excerpt:

The struggle between Court and Country is most evident in the years following the Glorious Revolution, when Sir Robert Walpole — Britain’s first real Prime Minister — sought to stabilize a fractious political landscape by bolstering the Crown and strengthening Parliament. Cunning and highly capable, Walpole wielded considerable influence over the Hanoverian kings, and through personal connections, patronage, and skillful bribery, he was able to control parliamentary business and dominate foreign affairs. Walpole’s breakneck consolidation of money and power and his reputation for corruption earned him many enemies, most notably Jonathan Swift and Samuel Johnson. But his fiercest adversary was Tory luminary Lord Bolingbroke, who excoriated Walpole’s ministerial usurpations in The Craftsman and advocated for an energetic opposition outside of government.  

A student of Machiavelli and critic of oligarchy, Bolingbroke considered Walpole’s cabalistic regime to be both irredeemably corrupt and hopelessly detached from the nation’s interests — a true imperium in imperio. To Bolingbroke, bribes and patronage had turned the government’s constitutional procedures into a ceremonial farce and rendered any distinction between Court Whigs and Tories irrelevant. Internal reform was, therefore, unlikely, if not impossible. For Bolingbroke, the solution to this stubborn problem had to come from the countryside — from the landed class — who were not only patriotic and suspicious of centralized government, but also self-sufficient and inherently hostile to merchant class corruption. Emerging from outside Walpole’s orbit, this “Country Party” could challenge the Court’s power and champion the “voice of the country.” Moreover, if the Party’s efforts were successful, it might embolden a future “patriot king” to seize the initiative, purge the government of its corrupt factions, and finally act in the best interest of the people…

I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to drop your questions or feedback in the comments section below.

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Best,

Lee