President Biden grew up with a set of lessons that included a maxim from his mother: Don’t kiss the pope’s ring, and don’t bow to the queen. It was meant, he later recalled, as a sign that all people are equal, and no one is superior.
The Post’s Matt Viser writes that for a man such as Biden who respects institutions, Queen Elizabeth II was, to him and the world, as much of an institution as anyone in modern history, however. So while Biden — an Irishman to his core — may not have revered the queen as much as some, and did not bow to her as many do, he honored her in his own way.
