Spending a week in England, I got a sense of why that crazy country still clings to their royalty, even now that it's passed far into the realm of figureheadness.

We toured Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, among other places. These are the two primary residences of the Queen, and are not generally open to the public except when she's on holiday. Every year in August the Queen goes to some other castle in Scotland for holiday (the entire country apparently takes August off for holiday, which is a completely different British quirk that I think needs serious consideration on this side of the pond), so we got in (after nice hefty royal admission prices, of course). Buckingham Palace was by far Shelly's favorite part of our trip (amazingly outstripping the Halls of Parliament), and I must confess that Windsor probably did it best for me. It's amazing the expense these people go to for their royalty. The rooms were sumptuous, huge, ornately decorated, and reeked with the pomp and ceremony of royal life. Even though the Queen is a figurehead with no real power, you still felt that her throne was important, and that she is important, and the most exciting thing you could ever do in your life is meet the Queen.

And here's the key. Because the Queen gets to where she is simply because of who she is (or rather, who her parents were), not because of any popular vote or public mandate, she belongs to everybody. Tony Blair has his supporters and his detractors, as do all real heads of state, and sooner or later he'll be voted out or step down or otherwise lose power. Precisely because the Queen is a figurehead with no real power, though, she is on everyone's side. She is a living symbol of the unity of the country. She is the United Kingdom.

I'm not saying I think it would be a good idea to have a king or a queen in the US. I like our system, more or less. But now I can understand why the British love their Queen and their constitutional monarchy. It's a symbolic thing, and it makes every Englishman (or Scot or Northern Irishman or Welchman) feel like he's part of something bigger than himself. And that's kind of cool.