Biden's monstrous motorcade betrays an empire in decline
National Post, 29 March 2023
There is a point past which spectacle becomes just vulgar, and vulgarity can become obscene. There was something of that in Ottawa last week.
OTTAWA — State ceremonial reveals rather a lot.
We were reminded of that at the funeral of Her Late Majesty and we shall see it again at her heir’s coronation. Britain taught the world that imperial preening is best expressed within the bounds of chivalry and, even better, restrained liturgically: Not unto to us, not unto to us, O Lord, but to Thy Name give the glory. If you haven’t seen Kenneth Branagh’s magnificent cinematic portrayal of same in Henry V, you must.
The presidency of our southern neighbours is wholly unrestrained by man or beast — or Beast, as they call the presidential limousine. Sometimes they run two Beasts back-to-back for extra “security” and because, well, they can. What’s the point of superfluous Beasts if no one sees them?
It has been several years since I last encountered the behemoth of the presidential motorcade, but there it was on Thursday night in Ottawa in all of its decadence. I was walking — or rather attempting to walk — from Notre Dame Cathedral down to our Cardus offices across from the Rideau Centre. Not possible!
The enormous bloat was bearing down upon us. Like children counting rolling stock at a railway crossing, our little impeded group began to count. I gave up after a few dozen, but a hardier soul persisted until she was up over a hundred.
Eventually, like a great ice jam in the spring, it passed, but the assembled citizenry was not permitted to perambulate on the public pedestrian pathways. A friendly officer from York (!) Region, seconded from several hundred kilometres away, informed us that the sidewalk was to remain closed even after the president had long passed.
Given that I once stopped at a traffic light on the same street only to have then-prime minister Stephen Harper pull up beside me, driven by two RCMP cars, I remained unconvinced of the security need to police an empty street.
Of course there is no security need. It’s part of the theatre meant to intimidate foreigners when abroad, and develop the cult of the leader when at home. Actual emperors, from the Pharaohs of Egypt and the Caesars of Rome to Queen Victoria and Austria’s Franz Joseph would blush at how the American president travels. Far from the great man visiting the denizens of the provinces, official advisories encourage people to flee the area, as if a plague was blowing through.
As Queen Elizabeth II demonstrated in innumerable trips, it is possible to travel with a light security footprint. At home, it would not be unusual for her to be accompanied by only one or two other cars.
The phenomenon of excess predates Biden by decades, though his security deployment seemed to include more ambulances that I remember in years past. Perhaps the Secret Service has special senectitude protocols. The security apparatus was clearly exempted from the Inflation Reduction Act.
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