ALL IN THE FAMILY
Only a couple of days after my ruminations on the role of dynasties in American politics, I come across this op-ed piece by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. He starts out by stating:
"Does it diminish American democracy if we keep the presidency in the same two families that have held it since 1989?"
Which leads to some interesting math:
"If Hillary Rodham Clinton serves two terms, then for 28 years the presidency will have been held by a Bush or a Clinton. By that point, about 40 percent of Americans would have lived their entire lives under a president from one of these two families."
And some interesting questions:
"Wouldn’t that make our democracy seem a little, er, Pakistani?"
Not to mention a fascinating observation:
"We Americans snicker patronizingly as “democratic” Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore, India and Argentina hand over power to a wife or child of a former leader.
Yet I can’t find any example of even the most rinky-dink “democracy” confining power continuously for seven terms over 28 years to four people from two families. (And that’s not counting George H.W. Bush’s eight years as vice president.)"
Which then leads to an out there web-site:
"A tongue-in-cheek Web site called Bush-Clinton Forever is already proposing Jeb Bush in 2017, Chelsea Clinton in 2025, Jeb Bush’s son George P. Bush in 2033, Chelsea Clinton’s husband in 2041 and George W. Bush’s daughter Jenna Bush from 2049-2057."
There's at least a book in all this, if not feature-length documentary. Someone call Michael Moore already.
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