I have been re-reading 1984 by George Orwell over the last week, and I was stuck last night by a line analyzing the Party of his imagined world. It made it clear that one of the main things that leads to "revolutions" (something the Party of that book has made obsolete) is the sense that government has become hereditary, and that there is no longer a means for smart, capable, ambitious men and women to rise. Locking any government into a hereditary ruling class is the surest way to bring about violence (see the man invasions of Rome, for an example) and discontent (see the French, English revolutions).
The current pattern of governance of the USA has brought us very close to a hereditary or family model. While it is normal for American presidencies to be reactionary to the one before (Nixon's scandals brought about Carter's rise of the ineffectual but honest man, Carter's lack of ability and strength brought about Reagan's rise as the man with apparent strength and manlyness), in the past it has largely been reactionary in the KIND of person who is elected next. Not the actual family structure. At the moment, we have Bush, Clinton, Bush as the pattern. Bush 1's lack of connection to the common man brought about the election of Clinton as the president who "feels your pain." Then the Clinton scandals did something different. Instead of simply bringing about the election of a man who could be free of scandal, American voters turned to simply a rejection of Clinton by annointing another Bush! (Yes, I am ignoring the question of the popular vote in 2000. Feel free to use the comments to lambast me for that. Or for having myself voted for GWB twice.) Now the Democratic Party is about to do the same thing by nominating Hillary Clinton as simply a rejection of George W. Bush.
The message this sends to the People is this: The system is becoming a family-based system. We go from A to B to A to B to A, and please forget about any chance for C to rise and change the dialogue. We are very happy with our current argument and need no new voices. The political class is sealed, and the gates to the palace are no longer open to anyone. This can only be bad for the country, and bad for any nation that considers itself in any way a democracy.
And yes, I am also asking Jeb Bush and George P Bush to NOT run in 2012 and 2016, if Mrs Clinton DOES become president in 2008.
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