The Family...by Kitty Kelley
Petty. Vindictive. Arrogant. Vain. Fearful. Entitled. Classless. Thuggish.
These are characteristics that are barely palatable in an adolescent. But in a powerful political family such as, say, the Bush clan, they are downright dangerous.
And thus my journey inside the Bush family began in reading Kitty Kelley's remarkably lucid and well-researched book, 'The Family.'
First off, let me say, that this book is timeless. I'm disgusted at the lack of serious treatment it received when released last October. Either it was ridiculed by the light-weights on Fox who never even read it, or ignored by the morons on CNN, MSNBC and others who never read it. Larry King refused to have Ms. Kelly appear prior to the Election for fear she and her tome were BIASED.!
Oh me oh my.
I'm sure that all powerful families have their share of dysfunction and skeletons. But not all powerful families have their tentacles so wrapped around the pillars of wealth, privilege, industry, finance and political power that the Bushes have. Ms. Kelly has done her research and done it extensively. She has been tarred as little more than a tabloidist because of her past works. That may be true for those works. I've only read one book of her about the Royals, and was quite impressed.
'The Family' is a good read-an informative read. It is a consuming read. I tried to understand why it was that I and so many others...56 million to be exact...hate the Bush presently in the White House. And I tried to understand why 59 million love him.
The Bush family is contemptuous of outsiders and always has been. They exist for themselves only. Others exist only for the Bushes. Period. Loyalty is mostly a one-way street, because the Bushes expect it and reward it. They are the ones who demand it and then dole it out. Friendships are brokered on the basis of Yale and Skull and Bones and business connections.
The fact that W has been able to convince many Americans that he's a regular guy who you could have a beer with is an amazing feat of deception. None of the Bushes, let alone W can stand to be with the 'little' people. There are the Bushes, corporate Royalty, and then the rest of us. They live in such a rarified atmosphere that W hasn't a clue on how to survive without The Family or its suitors ever bailing him out.
The Bush Family is a story of the second generation Bushes never having to sweat it out..of never having to take any responsibility for screw-ups or failures because someone was always willing to do the Family a favor and invest in, bail out, or promote up the lagging son.
Few of the Bush Clan are portrayed with much sympathy. Except Prescott Bush, the Senator from Connecticut. He was a bad parent, a pompous Yale man, a conceited snob, but a man of some high degree of principle who hated Joe McCarthy and who fought for the Civil Rights Bill long before it became fasionable.
George HW Bush, Prez 41 comes off as a pathetic whiner and wimp who's only goal in life was to out do his father, Prescott, by becoming President. (sound familiar? It seems all Bush men have Daddy problems.) And while all the DC press corps knew it...hell I knew it when I lived in DC in the early 1970's...Daddy Bush had a long running affair with one Jennifer Fitzgerald. But of course, he got away with it, while the Meida savaged Bill Clinton.
This Family is consumed with demanding loyalty from its serfs and Court attendants. I loved this observations cited by Ms. Kelley from Doug Bailey, co-founder of the presigious Republican consulting firm Bailey/Deardourff and Associates..." He [GHWBush] is obsessed with lolyalty, loyalty, loyalty, which affects the entire family and inevitably leads all of them to their unhealthy preoccupation with enemies: 'If you're not for us, you're against us, and if your against us, by God you'll pay.'"
My immediate question is this...who would give a damn about being on the good or bad side of this crime family? Which leads to another more searing question...why do I care about this family?
Well, it seems they've arrived at some sort of apex of political power in America that is proving to be very unhealthy for our Democracy and general well-being. But there's something more at work here that I have to confess to.
I'm jealous of the Bushes and especially of W. I went to Yale, too. But I earned my way in and was a scholarship student as opposed to W's legacy admission. I didn't get tapped for Skull and Bones though I would have loved the honor. I never had any Daddy connections to help me out. When I fell on my ass through various failures, no one bailed me out.
I wish someone had. I wish I could have failed my way into success. W and his old man are a true perversion of the Horatio Alger American Dream Mythology. And I think a lot of people still buy into that. And I think I resent it wasn't there for me.
I knew guys like W at Yale and in prep school and I loathed them for their arrogance and sense of entitlement. It seemed they never had to sweat anything. I fully admit to this.
But at some point, my personal feelings go macro. And this is where Ms. Kelley's book is utterly on point. The Bush Family has an inbred arrogance of superiority that Prez 41, W and his siblings have never had to earn. They have lived in a rarified financial and social atmosphere where the regular rules by which the rest of us play, do not matter. They delude themselves and indeed the 'little' people into believing that all the Bush sons have made it on their own and have never accepted favors from family friends or retainers. They maintain the myth of rugged individualism when they are firmly attached to the teats of wealthy oil magnates, financiers and Saudi royalty.
It's a neat trick and they have had the Press in their court for 3 generations covering their collective pampered bottoms.
"The Family" is a long book, but a quik read. I loved it. I loved even when Ms. Kelley is kind to the Bushes. She deserves more than the trashing she got from the Media. I recommend this book as a thorough overview of this Family that now has such a controlling grasp on America's poltical and economic and social future.