Political commentator Gore Vidal once compared US presidential elections to the Grammy Awards; both get little interest from outside of the industry and both are too self-congratulatory to be taken seriously.
With our Southern neighbours gearing up for another go-round of baby kissing some frightening realities have arisen.
The level of gentry among serious contenders is more than disturbing.
Al Gore, the son of a powerful Tennessee politician. He fought in Viet Nam. He is related to Gore Vidal, interestingly enough, who is related to America’s Royal Bootleggers–the Kennedys.
The two-term Vice-president’s entry surprises no one. And why not run?
Enough time has past for Americans to forget the 1980s and Gore’s battles against rock ‘n’ roll. Leaving his penchant for censorship in the senate, he moved on to pad his resume as second fiddle to an embarrassingly "rock ‘n’ roll" president.
George Bush, should not be referred to as junior. His father is a junior. Dad was also US president and is a member of Harvard’s secret society "Skull and Bones" –soon to be a major motion picture. George iii developed a cocaine habit during the time George the Elder was Head of the CIA, (talk about a secure supply!).
Bush, the younger, is known as a liberal Republican Governor of Texas, which ranks second worldwide in executions behind Russia, and second only to Arizona as mailing address to libertarian millionaires.
While John MaCain Jr. languished in the seemingly humble beginnings of a North Vietnamese prison, John Sr. was becoming Supreme Commander of US Naval Forces in the Pacific. McCain is the most overtly Right-wing candidate reiterating his view of Viet Nam as a just war.
Has it come to this?
Bill Bradley, the only one not a direct descendant of the ruling class, used to play basketball for the Knicks… eh, whatever.
Bradley, the most liberal of a batch strained through the colanders of two (count’em two) separate, monied, right-wing political parties, will need to win early and often to dent the candidates who boast big money and bigger names, not to mention a voting public which seems decreasingly interested in who becomes their king.
Whichever deserving golden son of the elite who actually becomes the next president will have to do the same.