Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Does anyone remember Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, and his bizarre insistence that 29% of the registered voters constituted a mandate from the masses? Somehow The Lady of the Lake sketch in Monty Python and the Holy Grail came to mind. The 2000 and 2004 elections weren’t much better.
I am holding on to hope for the 2008 elections.
- ARTHUR:
- I am your king!
- WOMAN:
- Well, I didn’t vote for you.
- ARTHUR:
- You don’t vote for kings.
- WOMAN:
- Well, how did you become King, then?
- ARTHUR:
- The Lady of the Lake,…
[angels sing]
…her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur.
[singing stops]
That is why I am your king!- DENNIS:
- Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
- ARTHUR:
- Be quiet!
- DENNIS:
- Well, but you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
- ARTHUR:
- Shut up!
- DENNIS:
- I mean, if I went ’round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!