The Aristocrats Rule

Following up on today's theme of children behaving a certain way because of their parents (see the post below this one), Glenn Greenwald says we Americans are so eager to live in a society with royalty and aristocratic families (so cruelly denied from us by the Founding Fathers), that we might as well go ahead and make it official.

It's true, the Aristocracy took hold in America long ago, and the fascination with celebrities and anyone connected to them has only made it worse. Don't believe him?

"They should convene a panel for the next Meet the Press with Jenna Bush Hager, Luke Russert, Liz Cheney, Megan McCain and Jonah Goldberg, and they should have Chris Wallace moderate it. They can all bash affirmative action and talk about how vitally important it is that the U.S. remain a Great Meritocracy because it's really unfair for anything other than merit to determine position and employment. They can interview Lisa Murkowski, Evan Bayh, Jeb Bush, Bob Casey, Mark Pryor, Jay Rockefeller, Dan Lipinksi, and Harold Ford, Jr. about personal responsibility and the virtues of self-sufficiency. Bill Kristol, Tucker Carlson and John Podhoretz can provide moving commentary on how America is so special because all that matters is merit, not who you know or where you come from. There's a virtually endless list of politically well-placed guests equally qualified to talk on such matters."

And if it happens a lot in the media, it must happen even more often in politics. Back in December of 2008, Greenwald wrote a similar blog post about Nepotism in politics. An excerpt:

"Bill Clinton yesterday was forced to deny speculation that he would be appointed to replace his wife in the U.S. Senate. Leading candidates for that seat still include John F. Kennedy's daughter (Caroline), Robert Kennedy's son (RFK, Jr.), and Mario Cuomo's son (Andrew). In Illinois, a leading contender to replace Barack Obama in the Senate is Jesse Jackson's son (Jesse, Jr.). In Delaware, it was widely speculated that Joe Biden would be replaced by his son, Beau, and after Beau took his name out of the running because he's now serving in Iraq, the naming of the actual replacement -- lone-time (Joe) Biden aide Ted Kaufmann -- "upset local Democrats who believe the move was a ham-handed attempt to engineer the election of Biden’s son, Beau, to the Senate in 2010."

He goes on to point out that 15 of the 100 current U.S. Senators have immediate family members who occupied a high public office. Not to mention the last President.

Isn't a bit much? Apparently not for celebrity-crazed America, a place where we talk about the value of a Meritocracy only until someone with a popular name walks into the room and asks to be seated at the head of the table.

For comparison, here's a 1929 article from Time Magazine about the election of a certain Paul John Kvale to the House of Representatives. His father had held the same seat (Minnesota's 7th district) for the previous six years. The opening line of the article is both harsh and telling:

"Primogeniture and hereditary public office have no place in U. S. tradition."

80 years later, that's just not true anymore.