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Politics is a family business, much like many others. It's not surprising that people who are raised in a political home find political careers. Same is true with lots of other areas. Try becoming a lighting technician on a soap opera.
It's the rise of nepotism as a positive cultural value, which I take as an effect of a broader breakdown in shared values. The lunatic fringe has just concluded a 40+ year effort to break down broadly shared values, starting with a war on the widely shared idea that the US is a liberal democracy.
Their tactics of vitriol and hyperbole have poisoned public discussion about almost everything. So what we are left with are ideas that don't really require discussion -- Jeb Bush must be OK since his Dad was, etc. It's a way of having a fake political discussion -- which family scion would be the best fit is a conversation that we can have in public that won't unleash the screaming bullying that a conversation about economic fairness or reproductive rights or healthcare finance would.
It's all part of a broader trend where we have been induced to give up the very idea of shared values (i.e., community) in favor of a highly destructive "every-man-for-himself" mentality.
Having said all that, is it OK to hope that one day Michelle Obama will run for something? I think she's terrific!
