As Jeb Bush’s campaign for the US presidency ended unceremoniously after never really having got off the ground despite the $100 million raised even before he decided to run, the legacy of the most dominant family in American politics comes virtually to an end. George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush reigned longer than the Kennedys and the Clintons.
However, not all the Republicans were shattered, or even sentimentally affected when the former Florida governor chose not to press on with his candidacy in 2016. After all, his brother and father left a war trail from which the US is still to get off, giving the 12 Bush years a somewhat awkward record in the White House. Dynasty politics is a worldwide phenomenon, most of all in India where it is not only the Gandhis who built successive generations of leaders.
The likes of Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh have also shown that politics can be a shining pathway like any other industry, company or profession that sons and daughters tend to follow their parents into.
The Clintons carry a famous surname in American politics with the former First Lady and then powerful secretary of state in President Obama’s first term now vying to claim the White House on her own merit. Her run for the US presidency — just a few months ago it seemed a cinch against the divided Republicans — might become a close race with the emergence of a challenger in Donald Trump who is defying all odds. Hillary is about the last dynastic torchbearer in American politics and her bid would be fraught with interest.
