Bush, Donald Trump and the British Aristocracy

I've been thinking lately about Dumbya and how he got elected President (well, sort of) and whether it might be better if we had a real aristocracy, like Britain.

Somebody once pointed out that the British aristocracy does serve a useful social function. Here in the United States, our lack of an official aristocracy leads to absurd delusions that a de facto one does not exist. We therefore assume that the U.S. is much more meritocratic that it really is, and attach undue moral righteousness to economic outcomes. We lionize morons like Donald Trump, who is constantly running businesses into the ground and, a friend of mine once calculated, would actually be far richer than he is if he'd merely invested the money he inherited from his father in mutual funds. And we blame the poor for their own condition.

Meritocratic fantasies are much tougher to sustain in a society like Britain, thanks to the class structure, so the British have more sympathy for the down-and-out, and consequently the U.K has a better social safety net. And though Prince Charles has as little ability as Trump, and one day will have as much money, nobody will be fooled into thinking he earned it.

Note also that when the halfwit son of Britain's head of state finally does inherit the office, at least they won't actually allow him to run the country. Would that were the case here.

The Democrats have their Kennedys, but the GOP is particularly royalist. There have been 14 presidential elections in the past 52 years. 13 of those 14 have featured either Richard Nixon, Bob Dole or a George Bush on the ticket in either the presidential or vice-presidential slot. Fortunately, Nixon was disgraced and Dole never reproduced, but somehow the Bush clan must be stopped.

Would we be better off if we took a few families and made them nobility, or even royalty? Gave the Bushes and the Kennedys titles and money, but forbade them to hold an office with real political power?

Of course it's been pointed out that the U.S. does have an aristocracy of sorts: our celebrities. Unfortunately they don't serve quite the same instructive social function as does Britain's inbred collection of bluebloods, because many celebrities got to be celebrities by having talent, even if the rewards for being able to act, sing or hit a major-league curveball are ridiculously disproportionate. Also, celebrities can and often do run for political office.