As a member of the small military fraternity that proudly carries the nom de guerre of American Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion—Swamp Fox—I find Meghan Markle’s recent remarks about American electoral politics reprehensible.
Not because Markle is an opportunist on the scale of Evita Peron.
Not because she “identifies” as black, then white, then sometimes something else, with the dexterity of a chameleon on speed.
Not because this L.A. mall-rat-who-got-lucky has single-handedly fractured the British royal family more effectively than the Duke of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, Rudolf Hess, and Adolf Hitler’s entire subversion organization.
Nope.
It is because this so-so Hollywood actress, who, as a child, learned about relationships on the set of “Married with Children,” has brought the whole stinking mess back to the United States!
Now from her enormous compound in chi-chi-air-kiss-air-kiss Montecito, California, she feels her “royal” status allows her to lob (shriek?) criticism of America and Americans without regard to effect. In Marion’s day, such a blatant opportunist, having switched sides, married the British crown, and begun issuing outlandish statements criticizing nascent America and its culture, would be characterized as a Tory. And there were other, less polite appellatives, which happily are still in use today, and often rhyme with “rich” and “blunt.”
While Marion was extremely judicious in his treatment of such Tory personnel during the balance of the war (asking them to surrender their arms, give their parole, and swear loyalty) he was recalled in 1782 to deal with a Tory uprising along the Pee Dee River in South Carolina.
Funny thing—nobody ever heard from those Tories again.
Perhaps the Duchess of Sussex should keep her disloyal thoughts to herself, lest Americans become upset with a 21st-century Tory turncoat. Or perhaps she could appeal to her grandmother-in-law to repeal the Treaty of Paris or the Treaty of Ghent.
Given Markle’s “status” within the family, I don’t think the queen would do more than yawn and break wind.
If Markle then turns and plays the race card (again) with a diatribe about alleged “structural racism,” or questions the love of country (no matter what the social circumstance) of black Americans of Marion’s era, just tell her: Oscar sent me.