Dynasties ‘Made in the USA’

The Bush family personifies political dynasty in the United States, since it managed to get both a father and son elected to the presidency, something that John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, also managed. But at the moment, the country is starting to think that the Bushes could exalt their royalty if Jeb becomes the Republican candidate. Time magazine has dedicated the front cover of its latest edition to him, and this paper highlighted yesterday in the chronicles of its Washington correspondent that Jeb Bush is the preferred candidate of the conservative elite. Political dynasties — the Roosevelts, the Rockefellers, the Kennedys — fascinate North Americans; their leaders have become defined as the “Dukes of Democracy” because they allow voters to identify with the sacrifices and triumphs of one family. Curiously, the women — wives and mothers — play an important role in the configuration of the profile of the candidate and in the roots of the candidate’s lineage.

The Bush family always thought that the one who would be elected to succeed George H.W. in the White House would be Jeb. He, like his father, married young, had a family and became a prize-winning university student, while his brother, George W., married much later, was a well-known partygoer and was at the bottom of the class at Yale.* In the 1994 campaign, both presented themselves as candidates for governor: one for Texas and the other for Florida. Jeb declared that the only woman he had been to bed with was his wife, to which George, seven years his senior, replied “Yes? Well you’ve set the bar very high for those of your generation.”**

The 2016 presidential elections could mean confrontation between two dynasties, the Bushes and the Clintons, although 70 percent of the country rejects this. At the moment, however, the heirs of both dukedoms are pursuing the presidency.

*Editor’s note: According to reported sources including the Huffington Post, Bush’s Yale transcript shows he was a C student, and was in the 21st percentile of his class during his first year.

**Editor’s note: The original quotation, although accurately translated, could not be verified.