Instapundit notes this incident:
On April 29, Sir Jay Merchant was knighted by Ambassador Rudolf Bekink on behalf of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Merchant is the “international relations adviser” in the Office of the Administrator of CMS, which is the agency’s highest executive office.
While this may seem like just a neat factoid for inside-the-Beltway water-cooler amusement, there’s actually a constitutional problem that precludes this gallant story from having a fairytale ending.
Yeah, Article I, Section 9 of our Constitution forbids that.
Consider that when the British nobility (or any other noble class, for that matter) got started, they were simply a bunch of guys with swords slightly less dirty than the other guys with swords around them. Monty Python put it well at the end of this video clip:
As an aside, who knew they had an ObamaCare skit in the movie?
Anyway, such titles here are just party conversation now, but the British who once scoffed at notions that moistened bints lobbing scimitars were a basis of government now enshrine their royal family after centuries of actually being ruled by them. No offense to our British friends, of course. You are good allies and I'd have America stand at your side in any scrape. But I draw the line at submitting to self-proclaimed betters. I'd be polite to Queen Elizabeth II in the unlikely event I met her. I'd even have some respect and affection for the woman as a symbol. But I would not bow.
But I digress (as I can!).
Given that too many of our leftish betters already think they should be able to compel us to do things for our own good after failing to deter us with punishments and educate us with information, I'd rather nip that divine right authority thing in the bud.
Because while I don't doubt their good intent, I also don't doubt that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions:
The left derives its sense of moral authority from the supposition that its intentions are altruistic and its opponents' are selfish. That sense of moral superiority makes it easy to justify immoral behavior, like slandering critics of President Obama as racist--or using the power of the Internal Revenue Service to suppress them. It seems entirely plausible that the Internal Revenue Service officials who targeted and harassed conservative groups thought they were doing their patriotic duty. If so, what a perfect example of pathological altruism.
Oakley concludes by noting that "during the twentieth century, tens of millions [of] individuals were killed under despotic regimes that rose to power through appeals to altruism." An understanding that altruism can produce great evil as well as good is crucial to the defense of human freedom and dignity.
I'm certainly not saying that knighting Merchant is the first step to millions of dead Americans. But the prohibition on holding federal positions and holding a foreign title of nobility is still in effect in our republic. That free-born Americans would even have an interest in the whole bowing and scraping way of life is beyond me.
But why take chances given the historical record? Merchant should renounce the foreign title or take it to the private sector.
