From the Guardian: Amid the mourning, we republicans should look and learn – but we must not be silenced

This refers to small "r" republicans - those in Britain who support an indirect democratic system - as opposed to the monarchy. Capital "R" Republicans refers to the political party in the US>

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This week has been difficult for those of us who want to see a fully democratised, 21st-century polity that doesn’t have a hereditary billionaire as its head of state. Everything from the gratuitous wall-to-wall media coverage to the arrest of anti-monarchy protestors and the state-sanctioned cancel culture of those who dissent has laid bare the fact that this transition is as much about coercion as consent.

But, strangely, these acts have not been the most difficult thing to reconcile in this tumultuous week. Instead, it has been watching the livestream of tens of thousands of fellow citizens from all walks of life, quietly queueing for up to nine hours to file past a coffin while bowing and curtsying. My initial response was one of bemusement followed by a touch of despair. Why, I asked, would so many people, often with so little, show such deference to an institution that is the very embodiment of the inequalities of wealth and power that permeate our country? Because until republicans can fully understand this sentiment, we will struggle to win the argument for transition from constitutional monarchy to constitutional democracy.

To gain that insight you need only listen to the same people interviewed, almost continuously, on television and the radio about why they’ve attended. People are clearly moved, with some in the queue talking about their parents’ deaths or, more commonly, about wanting to be a part of “history”. Thus, many are not there to honour the institution of monarchy or a royal individual; what is prevalent is the expressed need to feel part of something more than themselves.

So how can democratic politics fulfil that function instead? If we think about our current political class replacing monarchy, that is clearly not the answer. How many prime ministers in the past 50 years would you queue up to pay final respects to? Probably not that many. But therein lies a fundamental truth about the institution of monarchy – it is a distraction. It is a spectacle exalted for exemplifying virtues that should be typical in public life and public behaviour. Casting such behaviour as exceptional allows the likes of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and the economic elites they represent to break and exploit the rules for their own benefit and that of their very narrow class interest – of which the monarchy is an integral part.