Family political dynasties?

One of the political undercurrents this year that keeps poking up its ugly head is the mythology of family political dynasties. It is a completely nonsensical concept. It ranks right up there with the worst of conspiracy theories. Here is the latest example I ran across in an Associated Press article entitled "Philadelphia suburbs hold key to Pa. primary":

"It's nice to be inspired by a politician," said [Name deleted], 34, as he kept an eye on customers entering his arts and crafts shop in the center of town. [Name deleted], among two dozen Delaware County voters interviewed by The Associated Press this week, switched his registration from Independent to Democrat so he could vote for Obama. He said he feared the emergence of White House family dynasties.

"Since I started voting, it's been a Clinton or a Bush," he said.

Where are otherwise-sane people getting this kind of crap from? I think it is a viral theme that is being pushed around the Internet by people who should know better but who also know that there are a lot of gullible people who fall for this kind of stuff. These are clearly the kind of people who cannot comprehend the distinction between correlation and causality.

It is hard to believe that some people somehow see the Bushes and Clintons as the same. Unbelievable. The words "blinders" and "gullible" come to mind.

The telltale sign here is his statement that "It's nice to be inspired by a politician." That is the giveaway clue. Some people are simply clueless and need someone to lead them around with a ring in their nose. They need to be "inspired." They should seek inspiration in religion, nature, community, arts, crafts, sports, or anything but politics. Politics needs to be above all else practical. In the 1930's in Germany we saw what can happen when people allow inspiration and passion be their primary guide to supporting a politician. We need to say no to inspiration and passion as our primary guide in politics.

Inspiration and dynasties. What an interesting combination. I am an independent too, but it really scares me that so many other "independents" are really way off the scale in terms of how they view politics. Even scarier is the fact that Barack tolerates and courts such political extremism. The American people vote as they see fit. To somehow distort their collective wisdom into the concept of a "dynasty" is quite scary indeed.

-- Jack Krupansky