In 2016 we will move beyond the Obama era to a new chapter in Presidential politics. The current political landscape seems to point to a likely showdown between the two most famous families of our current era of politics. The contest possibly may come down to Hilary Clinton vs. Jeb Bush. A former First Lady of the United States against a former First Brother and former Governor of Florida. Without going into a history of these two individuals, that’s what Wikipedia is for, lets just say I think that neither one will be a big change from what we have already had for the last thirty years.

There are some in this country who believe that this is a new phenomenon in politics and strictly speaking, it is. There has never been a first lady to become president after her husband and there has never been brothers to hold the position either. That being said, history shows us that familial dynasties exist within American politics. They have in the past, and will continue to do so for the near future. Whether that is good or bad remains a question for academics and historians. On a practical level, I believe that it is inherently bad for society while at the same time being good for corporations.

For society, voting for a family as opposed to an individual gives the illusion that we know what we are getting. A lot like going to the same weed man on a regular basis. You know he has that fire, even though that fire is more dangerous to your individual health that you are willing to admit. To go to another supplier opens the door to adulteration as well as quality decline. In politics we take it as given that if Hilary wins, we get the benefit of another term by Bill. Whoever thinks that if Hilary has an issue with something she won’t ask Bill (a former president) for advice is politically blind to say the least. The same holds true for Jeb. If he wins, he gets his brother AND his father to bounce ideas off.

So what’s wrong with that? The fact that there are term limits for Presidents for a reason is one response. We don’t live in a constitutional monarchy like the UK or other European countries. Our leaders don’t get to bring the same ideas, sensibilities, prejudices and biases over and over into our communal lives. We get new, fresh ideas from people who have never been there before. At least that’s what we like to think. The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t matter who chooses the drapes in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (the White House to you who don’t know), it matters how indebted they are to corporate interests. A funny thing happened the last weekend of March. A few of our ‘Pub candidates were invited to what is being termed the Adelson Primaries. We don’t give a shit because everyone knows black folks don’t vote republican. Why we should give a shit is that the four day Republican Jewish Conference read like a who’s who of the current crop of possible candidates for the highest office in the land, all trying to outconservative each other. A good read is over at http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/national-interest/66376-the-sheldon-adelson-primary-kissing-the-moguls-ring It stands to reason that if you guys like your Obama straight with no chaser then you’re going to absolutely HATE what may come out of the current asswipes running as republicans. Add to that the very REAL possibility that he may inherit majorities in both houses of congress and you have the makings of a very uncomfortable next few years if you’re not 1. white or 2. very, very rich.

That however is an aside from the question about dynasties in politics. They have always existed. Take out the Bushes and you still had the Adams, Harrisons, Roosevelts, and Madison and Taylor. That’s just the presidential status, on the state level (which is more important to you on an individual level) you have the Cuomo’s in New York, the Daley’s in Illinois, the most famous ones of all the Kennedys, the Bayh’s in Indiana, I could go on, but you get the picture. The one thing that binds all these families together is name recognition. That recognition gets you elected. Damn whether or not you’re the retarded one without a lick of common sense, you’re a [fill in the name of your local political family] so you should be elected. The fact of the matter is, we get a political family no matter who we elect at that level. Unless there is a Obama or a Carter or Reagan on the horizon that come from nowhere, whose family has not indulged in this folly we called electoral politics, we will always get someone who was connected to someone, who was the first, second, third cousin or the brother of the wife of the once removed ex-wife of the cousin of George Washinton’s cousin’s son’s nephew. All one big happy family sodomizing the citizens of this country for financial gain.

We as a people MUST get over this fascination we have with the fashion show organized every four years by corporate interests. Your local assemblyman, commissioner, aldeman, city-council member, whatever your community calls it, has more power over your individual life than the president does. POTUSBO doesn’t have anything to do with your streets being paved, or your garbage being collected. The Prez doesn’t have anything to do with that abandoned pitbull that is terrorizing your neighborhood. If there is a playground in your community that needs repair or replacement, you don’t put a petition on Whitehouse.gov, you call your local representative. The problem lies in what happens if your rep is ineffectual? What happens when at the state level voting districts are gerrymandered to the point where all of US have one person representing us, while they have many. How does that one person garner funds for us, when the majority can direct those funds to their constituencies? We have totally missed the ball on what is important in this country as it relates to political power. We see now what that strike has caused. Quick cliff note for those who don’t get it. Every ten years the country conducts a census (that’s when a lot of us find quick jobs interestingly enough) that census is then used to determine voting blocs for congressional seats. Remember my people, CONGRESS makes laws, not the damn President!!!!! On the state level, the legislature determines how the congressional maps are written. Because we didn’t vote for anyone not named Obama the last two election cycles (including the vitally important midterms) we have allowed the legislature of the red states to determine which politicians get to represent the states. In layman’s terms that means that a state like say Texas which until 1960 was solidly in the hands of democrats has now become one of the most solidly republican states in the nation. By not voting in local and statewide elections during the midterms, democrats have allowed republicans to redraw electoral maps to ensure that the state will stay in republican hands for a least the next TEN years. This blatant gerrymandering is in fact legal. (for a full explanation as to the mechanisms behind the practice, google gerrymandering or packing and cracking) That’s why midterm elections are so important. If we allow a group that obviously does not have our best interests at heart on a local, statewide and therefore congressional level, it doesn’t matter who is in the Presidency, he/she will not have the political leverage to move any platform through the congress who must pass the laws supporting and implementing whatever policy the President may want to enact. That’s the reality of politics. The President of the US is akin to the Wizard of Oz, a big head making the ground rumble with his/her every pronouncement when in fact there’s a bald-headed white dude behind the curtains pulling the levers.

Drops mic and walks from stage dripping blackness