American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush

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Summary: Trials and Tribulations of the Bush Family
Review: George H.W. Bush and his son, President George W. Bush, are two well- known members of the Bush family, thanks to their ascendance to the highest office in the land. The pathway to the top of the American political world began quite some time ago for the Bushes, and it is the main subject of this book by Kevin Phillips.

Phillips writes this book with a skeptical eye, focusing first on the characteristics of a family dynasty and how this can have detrimental effects on democracy. The two Bush presidents are not the first father- son team to both reach the Oval Office- that honor belongs to John Adams and John Quincy Adams. But the author feels that modern- day circumstances make the idea of a family presidential dynasty more of a threat today than in the past. I found this part of the book the least convincing. I respect Phillips as an author and I appreciate the fact that he doesn't resort to name- calling and other immature antics to degrade the Bush family and drive his point home. But I don't necessarily agree that having multiple family members reach the highest office in the land is a bad idea and a threat to democracy. Phillips tries to build a case for this, but I am not convinced this really matters.

When Phillips isn't talking directly about the Bush family's ties to royalty and similarities to a family of ruling kings, he is instead focusing on other realities of George W. Bush's personality and how these traits could have negative consequences to the American people. The chapter on the rise of the religious right, for example, is one such area where the author talks about some of the strong influences on Bush's political ideology and it is a very good chapter. It is known that Bush often consults with religious leaders for advice on public policy and foreign affairs, and Phillips feels this should be cause for alarm. I can agree that this is a little unsettling. Other presidents have relied on experts in their respective fields to guide public policy decisions. Bush, on the other hand, often turns to religious leadership, completely ignoring the idea that church and state are better off if kept separate.

Another area where the Bushes have allowed special interests to have a strong influence on policy is in corporate relations. We all know about Enron Corporation and the friendship between Bush and former Enron CEO Ken Lay. And most of us know about vice- president Dick Cheney and his ties to Halliburton Corp. But these are only the tip of the iceberg, as Phillips points out. The truth is that the Bush family has been involved in business for a long time and has been known to scratch the backs of those in power at different corporations in exchange for political favors and contributions. This is nothing new in the world of politics, but Bush seems to involve himself in corporate activities more than other presidents.

Bush family politics, and the deceitful way the family has projected itself to the public, is an interesting subject matter. The fact that two Bush family members have managed to win the office as U.S. president shows that the ancestors' hard work has paid off. Along the way, however, the Bush's have gotten themselves wrapped up in oil, big business interests, the religious right, and the military establishment. "American Dynasty" explains how this all started and where we are headed, as a nation, if this type of "dynastization" continues into the future. I don't agree with everything the author says, but his intellectualism is compelling and he does present some solid analysis of the Bush family and its rise to the top of the political field.




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Summary: Use some help on this to understand the rest
Review: This is so longstanding and intricately wound in layers upon layers of lies and covert ties that you shoudl also get to your computer and do like I did and postit passages that seem either unrealistic or outlandish. The big picture is as scary as Kerry turning the corner on a Viet Nam river and not knowing if your number was going to be up that day or not.

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Summary: Four Generations of Bushes...the Model of Dynastic Politics
Review: Kitty Kelley's recent tell-all book, "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty", would appear to be the companion volume to Kevin Phillips' book published earlier this year. But rather than going for the titillating copy that Kelly excels at in dissecting the Bush family, Phillips, a former Republican strategist, broadens his theme to the concept of intergenerational political power. Phillips explains that the United States has entered an alarming period of "dynastic politics", in which the spouses and offspring of political figures are picking up where their relatives left off, sadly to the ultimate detriment of democracy. This umbrella thesis leads to the Bushes, who far more than the Kennedys do, demonstrate this phenomenon. It begins with George W. Bush's great-grandfathers, Samuel P. Bush and George H. Walker, who assembled wealth and power by exploiting ties to Wall Street, arms merchants, the American intelligence apparatus and foreign dictators including Hitler. Phillips states that the Bushes' wealth and power, and those connections, are why a Bush is President today and why his policies are what they are. Phillips spends a good amount of the book discerning the family fingerprints on everything from Bush's pursuit of Saddam Hussein to his leanings toward the energy industry, which make up an intricate web of political dependencies that substantiates the power of the Bush family.

This book provides a lucid explanation of the current President's behavior, which far from being entirely his own product, is rooted in the four-generation family evolution and according to Phillips, a consistent pattern of deception and misinformation. The duration of the Bush dynasty makes this pattern deeper and more worrisome since it is unprecedented in scope given that it has been almost a century in the making. Granted, to some degree, we are all the products of our parents and they of their parents. But Phillips argues convincingly that it's the uncompromising trajectory of the Bush power base that stimulates the author to make historical connections and sometimes sweeping statements that transcend his heavily documented annotations. There are definitely some gaps in credibility, but what adds to the veracity of this tome is the long history that Phillips himself provides on assessing the impact of national elections. He started with the 1968 contest in his 1969 book ''The Emerging Republican Majority,'' a legendary blueprint of Republican hegemony. It described how the rise of the Sun Belt and the suburbs, coupled with Democratic tone-deafness on social issues, was leading to a generation of Republican presidential dominance. Phillips' biting insight certainly sounds familiar, as we are undergoing the same sorts of trends now (read John Sperling's "The Great Divide: Retro Vs. Metro America" for verification of this). As someone who has obviously drifted away from his partisan identification, Phillips seems far more even-handed than most in conveying his disappointment with the current administration. This is highly recommended reading especially before the election.

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Summary: Poor Research - Foregone Conclusions
Review: Whenever an author proceeds upon a crusade to support a position, he invariably uses whatever facts he or she has in his or her possession to present his or her conclusion in the best light. Often, this can result in a temptation to use half-truths or unsupported or questionable facts, when a prudent individual might refrain from doing so. When that is done, and many of the facts are discredited, and the author's conclusion is in doubt. This is what many criticize the President of doing with Iraq. It is equally true with people like Micheal Moore and the author of this book. In doing so, this book crossed over from non-fiction to fiction.

As a moderate, I was intrigued by the title of this book, but I found myself thinking that this book was really driven by emotion, anger and frustration, (which apparently drives many liberals) rather than by the desire to actually reach a reasonable conclusion from the facts. Of course, the problem is, when you look at anyone from the outside, you can't really tell what motivates people. While I certainly admit that the Bush family certainly has some power, it doesn't seem any different to me that what the Kennedy family had. At any rate, let me say this: If you are a liberal, you'll like this book. It will make you feel better about your convictions. Frankly, it is a good pitch to liberals, and a smart way to make money after sacrificing the desire to be ethical. But if you are a free-thinking moderate, this book really won't sway your opinion either way. Such a book really will make you wonder why the author is so mad, and what his vendetta is. I want to say: Calm down, take a breath, relax and think clearly. Of course, conservatives shouldn't buty this book for obvious reasons.