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

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush – Kevin Phillips, Viking/Penguin Group (2004) 397pp. (S) ***

Kevin Phillips’ former work has addressed growing economic class inequitites in U.S. society, so that a book on the Bush aristocracy should seem like a natural transition. He is also a former Republican strategist, which gives him the unusual vantage point that comes with being an insider, when it comes to appraising Republican administrations. This time his subject is the Bush family, and with this Phillips more than has his work cut out for him.

Phillips notes that the Bush family has excelled in three principle areas: 1) intelligence, 2) energy, and 3) national security. For some, 1 and 3 may seem a bit too alike to mark any significant difference, and it is not clear if arms-trafficking would fall under the number 3 heading. Another ingredient to add to this is Texas. Phillips observes, “Texas . . . is an unusual American state, and many of its economic and cultural preferences are not those of the nation as a whole.”(p.119) While governor of Texas, George W. Bush, in a five year period, presided over more executions (152) than any other governor since the death penalty was re-instituted into law in the seventies. This, combined with Bush Jr.’s ill-fated ventures into the Texas oil industry, was pretty much all the American electorate needed to know about candidate Bush in the 2000 election. Killing in the pursuit of energy reserves like we now see in Iraq, is a natural in terms of policy advancement. But whatever makes Texas unique, be it a crumbling public education system or it being home to the city with the worst air quality in the nation (Houston), the Bush clan has found it to be fertile soil from which to launch their political careers. Maybe these facts are not exactly unrelated.

By working with long brush strokes, i.e. “Northern industrial labor unions and military draftees circa 1950 had long since [by the late 20^th century] given way to sun belt bases, nonunionized, high tech work forces, de facto private armies, and every kind of subcontractor imaginable.”(p.271) Phillips gives a more fuller picture from which the Bush legacy has evolved and prospered. Within this context, we find a deep rooted cynicism that is key to the Bushs’ electoral successes. For instance, how was Bush Sr. able to rally a country to war in the first Gulf crisis, when only in a matter of days previous to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. was still arming Saddam Hussein? The examples of this type of crass political calculation that banks heavily on the collective amnesia of the U.S. public are indeed too numerous to fully list here.

Absent from Phillips’ analysis is a comparison of candidate George W. Bush’s words and promises to the actions of Bush the president. One can’t help be reminded of now candidate Bush repeated ad nauseum how he “trust[ed] the people, not the government,” yet under his leadership, government has actually grown, both in net personnel and spending. Phillips also gives short shrift to 9/11, though this may be just as well since it may be his intent to go lightly where so many others have left deep foot prints. Also, while Phillips explores some of the dynamics in the rise of the religious right, an influence that is predominant in the Bush Jr. administration, for some reason he steers clear of the neo-conservative movement and how their pre 2000 agenda to exact “regime change” in Iraq, gave form to the aggressive Bush foreign policy.

Generally Phillips’ writing is on the ball, though the text is sometimes unnecessarily redundant, while in some places the wording is confused, and in a few rare moments, it is outright non-sensical. The sourcing and the notation are quite thorough.