The notion that something is deeply wrong with how our government works is inescapable, so it’s no surprise that people are searching for alternative ideologies. In the United States, the political atmosphere has been totally spoiled by radical divisiveness – a fact exacerbated by Donald Trump’s ascent into the Oval Office. Monarchism is still active in around 40 countries, and whatever you may think of the practice, Sean’s analysis of the brokenness of our system is spot on. These message boards feature a glut of inspirational images of various monarchs: King George VI going down a slide, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav, Prince William and his family, and Tsar Nicholas II. I connected with Sean through the message boards of r/monarchism, a growing and diverse community of monarchy-lovers on Reddit that boasts almost 10,000 members, and touts itself as “a forum for those who think monarchy is a noble and viable alternative to the crude and materialistic mob mentality of republicanism”. “Our political system has been irrevocably poisoned by political partisanship.” “Having a background in history, I naturally gravitated toward monarchism because I felt that my national government wasn’t looking at issues of public welfare or national coherence or national unity,” he said. Sean’s views shifted not only thanks to his medieval studies, but also after learning more about US foreign policy. The monarchies I find most interesting and think we should replicate go back to the late Middle Ages.” While earning his undergraduate degree at a Catholic liberal arts school close to where he grew up, he explained: “I ended up looking into medieval political theory and getting more conservative. “Most people tend to get more liberal in college,” he told me.

But in college, a love of history, particularly the Roman Empire, ultimately drew him to monarchism and away from what he described as the “rah-rah American republicanism” of his childhood. The history graduate student, who’s in his early 20s, grew up Catholic in central Massachusetts in what he described as “a pretty staunch Republican household”.

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