Land of Dynasties: Should we be disturbed by another Bush candidacy?

Weekly Standard ^ | 12/26/2014 | Jay Cost

[SeekAndFind]

In mid-December, Jeb Bush announced his intention to explore a presidential bid. If he runs and wins the Republican nomination and then the election, he will be the third President Bush in 25 years. That unprecedented prospect has left many wondering: In a republic like ours, is it proper for one family to fill the executive seat so often?

The Bushes are not the first family to send multiple members to the White House. They join the Adamses (father John and son John Quincy), the Harrisons (grandfather William Henry and grandson Benjamin), and the Roosevelts (cousins Theodore and Franklin). But the Bushes are in a class by themselves for the speed with which one succeeded another—just eight years apart. And if the third Bush wins the top job after another interval of eight years, that will only make the exception more pronounced.

While we might fret about this for cultural reasons, we must acknowledge that it has not come about by accident. In fact, dynasties make a lot of sense for practical politicians. Acquiring the presidency is enormously challenging, and political dynasties ease at least some of the difficulties either in securing the nomination or in winning the general election. To put it bluntly, dynasties endure because they are politically useful.

Not surprisingly, then, political dynasties have actually been quite common in American history, though not always family-based. From the early 19th century into the 20th, there were three state-based political dynasties that were even more dominant than the Bushes.

The Virginia dynasty dominated the presidency for the first quarter of the nineteenth century. President Thomas Jefferson (1801-09) was succeeded by James Madison (1809-17), then James Monroe (1817-25). Strictly on merit, Jefferson’s and Madison’s elections were eminently sensible—but Monroe’s less so.

[SaraJohnson]

No royalty in America, please.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I see this.photo assembly has Chelsea in it. Time will tell if see a new generation of Clintonia in our politics. Sheesh.... Over 300,million people in our country. Presidents should not automatically come from a handful of families.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Insanity is continuing to elect RINO’s thinking there will be a different outcome.

[tanknetter]

It strains believability that, in a country of over 300 million people, that leading candidates from our two major parties just happen to be the wife of a former president, and brother and son of former presidents. Unbelievable.

Not really. Getting to the nomination is really all about having a solid national political network and access to money.

Political dynasties automatically convey both. I'd actually put Obama into the category of being, if not genetically part of a political dynasty, the beneficiary of such. Specifically the old (and, ironically, monied) Communist network that included Frank Marshall Davis and the parents/families of Jarrett, Axelrod, Plouffe and others.

The biggest problem with the Bushes, from a Conservative perspective, isn't even their RINO stances. It's that they relied on their personal/business networks, focused on "governing" (saw campaigning as a dirty but necessary evil) and completely neglected supporting and growing the Conservative Movement.

In a solid movement there's a good ladder of progression from activist to local office to state office to Federal office. Conservatives are only now starting to see the benefits of spending the last six years or so clawing the movement back up from the grassroots to produce that sort of structure. Ted Cruz and Scott Walker are on the leading edge of that, and we're now seeing really good Conservatives (like Joni Earnst) fill in the space behind them.

If Conservatives can maintain that momentum, in another 10 years or so we'll be in really good shape, at all levels of government. The danger, therefore, lies in elevating someone like a Jeb Bush to the top of the foodchain where the Conservative Movement will be (as it was during his Dad's and brother's Presidencies) relegated to the attic.

[Travis McGee]

I agree, and it's just another sign of our national decline. Here's a new version.

[upcountryhorseman]

We don’t need another RINO!

[Impy]

The last TWO GOP Presidents were Bushes. Both were failures. Jeb should be a non-starter.

Think about it, the last THREE GOP Presidents could be the jerk that compared Reagan to a witch doctor and his 2 sons? That's preposterous. And no Bill O'Reilly, it doesn't matter AT ALL that the rat will probably be Hillary. I have to go with almost any other contender over Jeb.

[campaignPete R-CT]

which county in IA are you going to be involved in?

[x]

Equating a geographic “dynasty” (a true contortion of the essence of the term “dynasty”) with a FAMILY, especially a family with such a uniform political perspective is ridiculous.

At first, I was going to disagree. It's a metaphor after all and that involves finding similarities in things that aren't exactly the same. Jefferson and Madison were closer to one another than some Roosevelts or Harrisons or Tafts or Stevensons or Frelinghuysens spread out over generations were. The New York Yankees were a "dynasty" (metaphorically), but that doesn't mean that Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio and Mantle and Jackson and Jeter were blood relatives.

But after reading through the article -- yeah, the writer does make way too much of the "Virginia Dynasty" or the "Ohio Dynasty" which were very different from people just electing members of the same family. Simply brushing aside the concerns people have about "creeping elitism, the decaying republican character of the government, or a monarchical impulse in the people" as the author does, doesn't make any good case for Jeb (or Hillary).

[Impy]

Grouse.

[JoeFromSidney]

The issue of him being the 3rd Bush concerns me a lot less than whether he's competent and the President we need right now. So far as I can see, all he has to offer is his last name. He hasn't shown any outstanding ability.

[GOPsterinMA]

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/12/dodgers-to-sign-brett-anderson.html

[SeekAndFind]

RE: So far as I can see, all he has to offer is his last name. He hasn’t shown any outstanding ability.

He was a two term governor of the state of Florida. We have an indicator of how he will be as President by the way he governed the state.

[dfwgator]

If I wanted to live under a dynasty, I’d move to North Korea.

[cycjec]

I remember 2005, and Terri. That’s the reverse of “not
showing great ability”

[Jim Noble]

“Should we be disturbed by another Bush candidacy?”

Only if he wins.