Of Presidents and Kings

A cat may look at a king, the saying goes and perhaps sleep in the royal presence unconcerned with worldly pomp. There was no king to be seen in the great parade this morning on the Champs Elysée this morning to celebrate the 14th of July, France`s national day, the most important of the year. President Sarkozy took the salute of a selection of France`s formidable armed forces in an impressive demonstration of precision marching by soldiers, armoured vehiclesin close array, horses and a fly-by of aircraft. Most French men and women were bursting with pride and patriotism, despite sad news of the deaths of six young soldiers killed keeping the peace in afghanistan.
   The Quatorze marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, the very start of France`s change from a monarchy to a republic. Despite some temporary restorations and empires, it so remains to this day, and proud of it.
   Is a republic the best system of government, you ask? Darned if I know! Basically there are three systems you can choose, a hereditary monarchy, where the King succeeds by birth from his father, the similar dictatorship, often passing on by the same system, or a democracy ,where the population choose their government. This is said to be the fairest, but it does have its disadvantages. To be in government or to be president, you have to convince the electorate that you will be better than the last lot, and the sight of politicians promising improvements they have little hope in keeping and denigrating the efforts of their opponents is not an edifying spectacle.As the voters are basically selfish, the promises are of the `bread and circuses` type already known to the Romans.
  Would it not be better and cheaper to have a wise and benign Leader to lead his nation to better things? But there`s the rub, who would choose this patriarch ( or matriarch, sorry, feminists!) and even more important how to get rid of him|her if unsatisfactory?  Gaddafi is a case in point!
   Perhaps a democracy, either a republic or a constitutional monarchy to water down presidential self-importance, is the least unsatisfactory of the available systems! What do you think? Suggestions would be welcome...

                Bye for now (it`s bedtime....)