Royal Titles in the Republic
You can take the honorifics of the temporary offices that American politicians inhabit from their cold, dead hands
Representative Mike Johnson has been the Speaker of the House of Representatives since October 2023, and yet his immediate predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, who is no longer even an elected representative of the United States House of Representatives, is still styling himself as “Speaker McCarthy” on X. Kevin McCarthy is the “Speaker” only of his own delusions at this point. Of course, McCarthy is not the only politician to hold onto the title for an office that he no longer holds, Representative Nancy Pelosi is also delusionally styling herself as “Speaker Pelosi,” a position she has not held since January 2023.
Then of course there’s the President of the United States, an office currently occupied by President Donald J. Trump. And yet we often hear about “President Obama” or “President Biden” in the present tense when neither of the people being referred to hold any political office whatsoever. And, on her personal website “About” page, Kamala Harris mysteriously refers to some person called “Vice President Harris” despite the current vice president being J.D. Vance. Not to pick on one party, the Democrats are largely out of power at this time, Donald Trump insisted on being referred to as “President Trump” while Joe Biden previously occupied the office of the presidency for four years, and we still hear about a “President Reagan” despite Ronald Reagan having died over 20 years ago.
In the United States, government titles go with government offices, not with the politicians who inhabit those offices temporarily. That these tax parasites insist that we continue to use these titles for them so that they can feel elevated above the mere rabble is no evidence that we ought to continue doing so. Politicians are not our betters for having been elected to this or that post, and they should be taking pride in re-entering civilian life and getting a real job that actually contributes to civilized life, rather than in the highest government office they were able to swindle the American taxpayer into letting them occupy.
The policy on X is that there are certain official government accounts that stay with the office, I’m thinking of the accounts “POTUS” and “VP”, though there may be more that I don’t know about. If, say, Joe Biden is not permitted to continue to use the “POTUS” X account, then why should Kevin McCarthy or Nancy Pelosi be permitted to refer to themselves as “Speaker” on X? More importantly, why should supposedly free Americans continue to refer to washed-up politicians by their previous titles in any capacity? They are either now holding lesser offices or no offices, and should be referred to accordingly. If it makes Mr. McCarthy angry that we pointedly refuse to defer to his delusions, then so much the better.