Queen Elizabeth II is being widely mourned in the United Kingdom and elsewhere as a symbol of the British state, tradition, and service. These mainstream sentiments, often expressed in the media coverage in the United States as well as the UK, are not universally shared. In Ireland and many other former colonies, the queen is a symbol of the oppression of an imperialism that is now in retreat but still leaves a legacy. Conversely, many right-wing figures like Tucker Carlson and former Trump adviser Steven Miller, are using the queen as an avatar of an earlier era when the right people with the right bloodlines enjoyed unquestioned power.

To discuss the meaning of the queen’s death and the monarchy, this episode of The Time of Monsters features a conversation with Nora Loreto, a Canadian journalist who podcasts at Sandy and Nora Talk Politics. One example of a right-wing politician seeking to weaponize monarchical sentiment is the newly chosen leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre. Nora and I take up the dangers of Poilievre’s mixture of libertarianism and cultural populism.

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