Say What???

I was listening to the news on CBC as I drove home tonight, and a reporter was commenting on a visit to part of South Asia that our minister of health was visiting. He referred to it as a place where "world leaders" are meeting. To emphasize his point, he listed off a number of world leaders that have visited the region stricken by December's Tsunami. Among the names he listed was Jeb Bush.

Not George Bush, but his brother - who is currently Governor of the State of Florida.

I'm not the brightest genius in around, but it occurred to me that something is afoot. When GWB sent little brother "Jeb" over to Indonesia, he did something significant - he gave his brother a presence on the world stage.

The sun is setting on George W. Bush's presidency even as he stands to be sworn in this month. Under US law, he cannot run for office again in 2008. So - what's the best thing he can do to keep moving his family's agenda forward? Make sure that his younger brother starts to develop a presence on the world stage as an "ad-hoc" representative of the US when George is "too busy" with other matters.

Yes, I am formulating a conspiracy theory of a sort here. I'm basically asserting that there is a very real possibility that Bush's political ambitions have more to do with establishment of a form of dynasty. It seemed to me just a trifle strange that George W. Bush should happen to be the next Republican in the White House after his father in the early 1990's.

It's relatively easy, and facile, to argue that since Bush was preceded by William Jefferson Clinton there is no intention to form a kind of family dynasty at the top of the Republican party. But I think that might be overlooking a few things:

1. George Jr. picked up right where his father left off. His pursuit of Saddam Hussein in Iraq simply doesn't make any sense (to me at least), except as a matter of family honor.

2. Take a look around the senior - unelected - officials behind GWB. Many - if not all - of them were present during his father's tenure in the White House.

3. Sending a state governor abroad to act as the nation's representative is highly unusual. Again, the only reason I can think of for doing such a move is to begin grooming that person for a future role on the federal stage. One of the key mistakes that George Bush had made in his rise was that he was clearly ignorant of states outside of Texas' borders - much less the world at large. Giving Jeb a presence on the world stage makes him that much "more saleable" in an upcoming nomination and election cycle in four years.

Perhaps I'm just paranoid, but I have suspected for a while that the Bush family has long term designs on the Presidency.

Perhaps, what we are seeing is the emergence of a monarchy of sorts. It happened after political and economic corruption started to degrade the Roman Republic - perhaps it is emerging in the US as power and wealth concentrate in the ever fewer hands of the very wealthy - setting the stage for a pseudo-Feudal environment to emerge? When families start to emerge as holders of political power for several generations, one has to start asking...