Frederick Reese
When America looks for future leaders, it typically starts with the families of current leaders. Among the top names floated for the presidency in 2016 — Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul — all of these are direct-line relatives to former national leaders.
For at least one woman, this is all a bit too much.
“He’s by far the best-qualified man, but no,” Barbara Bush said on NBC’s “Today” when asked whether she wanted her son Jeb to run for president. “I really don’t. I think it’s a great country. There are a lot of great families, and it’s not just four families, or whatever. There are other people out there that are very qualified. We’ve had enough Bushes.”
Until recently, John Ellis “Jeb” Bush was the locked-in favorite to be the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Bush’s lauded success in reforming the Florida educational system has won him esteem from both sides of the aisle, and his perceived charm and ease in communication gives Jeb credibility that his older brother — former President George W. Bush — lacked. Many see Jeb coming more from the mold of his father, former President George H. W. Bush.
However, Bush’s flip-flopping on the immigration issue has eroded his core of support in Florida and has exposed the former governor to a possible challenge from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). More to the point, the name Bush has became a political liability post-2008. Extreme, divisive feelings over the George W. Bush presidency has made the concept of forming a political coalition around anyone named Bush a real challenge.
“I would put it this way … if Jeb’s last name was Brown instead of Bush, he’d probably be the frontrunner for the Republican nomination,” former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour said. “Then again, if it were Brown, we probably would have never heard of him.”
A Bush by any other name…
Few would doubt that if Hillary Clinton had not been married to former President Bill Clinton, she would still be a well-known name in American politics.
It would just mean that the American people wouldn’t have known about her until much later.
Hillary Clinton has made a name for herself as the overwhelmingly popular junior senator from New York and as the globetrotting, extremely vocal secretary of state under Barack Obama. However, when she initially ran for the senate seat in New York vacated by the retirement of senior statesman, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), she ran with no former elected experience. Prior to her election as senator, she served as first lady of Arkansas (1983-1992) and as first lady of the United States (1993-2000). Neither roles are official government positions.
In her run against former congressman Rick Lazio, it was presented that she was running simply because she was the wife of the sitting president. The fact that she was still an official resident of Arkansas at the time she announced her campaign, the fact that she feigned affection for the state’s institutions (she was called out for donning a New York Yankees cap at a public event; she is on record as being a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan), and the fact that her legislative experience — up to that point — consisted of the failed 1994 national health care initiative, it didn’t prevent her from winning the senate seat by a 13-point margin.
The fact that Clinton ran against a relatively weak candidate should be taken into consideration. But even when the Republican candidate was former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Clinton still led in the polls. In American politics, going with a well-known name is an attractive choice, especially in a time where so little is known about candidates.
In the era of the low-information voter, a familiar name is sometimes all the credentials a candidate needs. Recently, the Clinton Foundation has changed its name to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation (although the group still uses the name “Clinton Foundation” informally) to represent the future roles and aspirations of not just the former senator, but of her daughter — who has expressed an interest in running for public office.
Nothing new
In the absence of a royal family, Americans have always looked at major political families as a makeshift substitute. The Kennedys, the Rockefellers and the Roosevelts have all been romanticized in the American imagination as de facto nobility.
However, for others, the existence of these quasi-royal families provides evidence for a common truism: It’s not what you know, but who you know that makes or breaks American success stories.
John F. Kennedy, when president, appointed his brother, then Sen. Robert Kennedy (D-N.Y.), as attorney general. Former Vice President Al Gore took over his father’s former seat in the Senate. George W. Bush came from a true political dynasty: Not only was his father a former president, but his great-grandfather was a senator and his wife is a direct descendant of former President Franklin Pierce.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, was appointed secretary of labor. Former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell’s son was named chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas), Jim Duncan (R-Tenn.), Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) all hold seats that were held by their fathers. Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Bob Bennett (R-Utah) share the same distinction. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) won his seat in the Senate while his father, Ron Paul (R-Texas.), was still serving in the House.
Former Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), upon being elected governor, named his daughter Lisa as his replacement in the Senate. “The fact of the matter is, I’m in the United States Senate today because my father, who is now the governor, was able to appoint me,” the younger Sen. Murkowski said when asked about her appointment by her father.
Nepotism in American politics is nothing new — early presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were father and son, Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of William Henry Harrison, James Madison and Zachary Taylor were second cousins and Theodore Roosevelt was fifth cousins with Franklin D. Roosevelt, who, by marriage or by blood, had direct-line family lineages with 10 other presidents.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, agrees with the former first lady that this system of nepotism is ultimately corrosive and serves to shut out many from the electoral process. “It combines the two most powerful motivations in Washington: procreation and power,” Turley told ABC News. “And [those who] benefit are the sons and daughters of the powerful elite.”