Is America turning into a Monarchy?

Anttech

I read this interesting article in the economist this week, regarding American Democracy and Monarchies.
In the light of the Queen (of GB) Visiting the USA, it does seem to be highlight a rather ironic fact that:

George Bush 89-93
Bill Clinton 93-03
George w Bush 01--09
Hilary Clinton?? 09--

See a pattern?

Ironic?

I just thought this was very Ironic, that the self-perceived beacon on Democracy seems to only have a few families brokering all the power, just like a Monarchy. The difference with GB is:
To me this is against all of what a Democracy should be about.....

Moridin

The 25th Amendment is still in place. So is the ability for Congress to overturn a Presidential veto. I do not think that Congress or the SC would allow a change of either on a whim.

loseyourname

Well, even if our last few and next few presidents come from the same families, they aren't exactly ruling autocratically by the divine right of kings, and they don't own the country either. We've also had two Adamses and two Roosevelt's in our history, and might have had two Kennedy's had Bobby not been killed. We've certainly got our capitalistic version of an aristocracy. The older families that have had money the longest do accumulate power, and in most of the oldest cases, they were simply the first to claim large plots of land.

devil-fire

i dont know a lot about presidents but i think its been a while since the son of a farmer/factory worker/shoe maker has been a candidate for president.

ps. its tough to say there is a monarchy in american politics, but people seem to be hiring their friends/family over more qualified people for government positions. there is a "you scratch my back and ill scratch your back" culture in american politics that amounts to more of a class centered monarchy then an ideal democracy

BobG

Not since Jimmy Carter. He was a peanut farmer, although a rather well-to-do peanut farmer.

honestrosewater

If you considered Ralph Nader a serious candidate in 1996, 2000, or 2004:

loseyourname

Harry Truman was the son of a farmer.

Anttech

Extreemly Rich farmer?

loseyourname

Nah, just a normal farmer. Abe Lincoln was also born to farmers living out on the frontier. Andrew Jackson was the son of recent immigrants, both poor, and his father died right after he was born. He actually ended up joining the military when he was 13 and was a POW for a while and nearly starved to death in prison. Those are the only three I can think of that came from notably humble beginnings, though, and they're all from a while back.

Cyrus

Why do people automatically think that becuase someone grew up from humble beginnings that they somehow are going to care about the person down there? Lots of people become sellouts for power and wealth, and would spit on you rather than help you when it comes down to it.

Office_Shredder

How can anyone forget John Edwards' upbringing?

kmarinas86

The Cliton's go way back:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...vice_president)

Skyhunter

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III. He adopted his stepfathers surname at 14.

Not exactly a dynasty. Bill Clinton, though not a farmer, was not a child of privilege.

His father William Jefferson Blythe was killed in a car accident before he was born.

There is some speculation that Blythe was out of the country when he was conceived and he is descendant of Thomas Jefferson through his slave concubine.

http://www.samsloan.com/billsdad.htm

The Clinton coat of arms is Scottish.

http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.c...-coat-arms.htm

The Bush geneology traces it's roots to Konrad King of Burgundy in the 10th century.

http://www.svu2000.org/genealogy/George_W.pdf

loseyourname

I'm just answering a question. I hate Andrew Jackson more than any other single figure in American history.

Smurf

Why?

P.S. You guys still have nothing on the USSR, Khrushchev didn't learn to read till he was like 30.

wasteofo2

Bill Clinton's biological father was a travelling salesman who died 3 months prior to Bill's birth. His mother re-married, and his step-father was the co-owner of a car dealership.

Ronald Reagan's father was a shoe-salesman.

Jimmy Carter was born on a farm, and famously became a peanut farmer.

In the last 30 years, only the two Bushes have come from aristocratic backgrounds.

BobG

Jackson was a pretty controversial person.

As a general, he decided on his own to invade a foreign country (Florida, which belonged to Spain at the time). You would think President Monroe would have gotten pretty upset about a general starting his own war, but the war turned out pretty good, since it resulted in the US obtaining Florida (we had to pay Spain $5 million, though).

As President, he was responsible for evicting the Cherokee out of Georgia to land west of the Mississippi (around 25% of the Cherokees died on a cross country march from Georgia to their new reservation). Chief Justice John Marshall and the US Supreme Court ruled against him on this, saying US law had no jurisdiction over a sovereign nation (the Cherokee), but he just ignored them ("John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!" ).

He also had the obnoxious habit of appointing friends and party loyalists to government positions regardless of their qualifications.

When John Marshall, the US Supreme Court Chief Justice that ruled against him on the Cherokee, died, he appointed a Chief Justice more in tune with Jackson's own beliefs. Chief Justice John Taney wrote the Dred Scott decision, giving the opinion that African-Americans (free or slave) could not be citizens of any state because they were "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

In a lot of ways, Jackson encompassed the things a lot of people fear about Bush.