(Thomas Froese Photo)
A No Kings sign in South Lee, Mass.
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, November 22, 2025)
Thinking today about kings and politics, let’s turn to John F. Kennedy along with Mr. Ashley, who taught me high school history.
It’s JFK today because November 22 is the day he was assassinated. That was 1963, but the American was one of those people who spoke deeper into time with thoughts like, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
It’s good, then, to give something of yourself to others, if not to your entire country then simply to people in your everyday circles. You’re given your passions and skills and experience – your personhood – for a reason.
Never one to give you a small challenge, my father put it this way: “There are only two types of people in the world. The givers and the takers.” That is, are you going to help clean up the world’s mess, or make it worse?
Mr. Ashley comes to mind for other reasons, namely his wardrobe. He’d rotate three neckties: his solid red “rage tie,” that showed his bellicose side, his traditionally-striped “today is a calm day tie,” and a third, hazy-blue cloudy tie that students called his “bender tie.” He seemed to save it for days when he explained, hands waving wildly during lengthy expositions, knotty topics like the Age of Absolutism, the era when monarchs ruled Europe with unchecked power.
So about our cousins south of the border. While Kennedy spoke about serving country as a political variation of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you’d want them to do to you,” today’s American president says something more like, “Do others in before others can do you in.” No surprise that the No Kings in America movement has come in response.
And like Mr. Ashley’s neckties, the interesting news follows. Take the raging, expletive-filled rant by Pete Hoekstra, U.S. ambassador to Canada. Or the “today is a calm day” Donald Trump saying, unreliably, how “very happy” Canada will be with its coming trade deal. Plus all the cloudy, bender-type political and economic stories relating to shades of absolutism.
Even without Mr. Ashley’s history lessons, most of us know this, that absolute power corrupts absolutely. So modern democracies, imperfect as they are, have elected legislatures and courts and other checks to keep the system at least somewhat honest. Now we watch our southerly cousins as their foundations are tested.
Speaking of kings and power and these matters, arriving between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is the first Sunday of Advent. That’s the season when people in much of the world actually reduce life’s daily noise and clutter to get quiet enough to consider a different kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. It’s a kingdom of paradox.
Christ said as much when, in one of history’s more enduring lines, he told his critics, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.” Funny also how the only crown Jesus wore in this world was one of thorns.
He didn’t need anyone to tell him how human power without humility goes sideways. Which says something about America’s recent taste for so-called Christian nationalism and why it’s off the mark.
It’s because trying to bring God’s kingdom – one of justice and mercy and humility – through government force isn’t Christ’s example. Rather than clamouring for power, think of yeast. Jesus explained it. A small amount infuses an entire bread loaf from inside. Similarly, lasting societal change comes not from top-down political power, but outward from hearts and minds.
Still, healthy democracies easily welcome people of one faith or another into a pluralistic public square, including government. Consider JFK. His critics said don’t vote for this Catholic because he’ll be in the pocket of the pope. He never was. On the contraire, people with thoughtful faith often bring a better understanding of what it means to be human.
But an opportunistic religious-political power grab? That’s different. It’s just more taking and confusion and mess.
Spot on. Thank you Thomas
My pleasure. I’m not alone.