Dynastic Decay

 The idea of hereditary rule was created to end the struggle for power that occurred when a monarch died. Monarchs were - elected isn't quite the right word - selected from among competing factions and nobles until the idea of birthright monarchy was created by Charlemagne and others.

Today, I think we can agree that hereditary rule is freaking bonkers. What a useless and pointless way to assign leadership. I saw a tweet somewhere that was replying to another tweet that complained that the only reason Biden is championing student debt relief was to win votes. The reply tweet was "Yes, that's precisely the point. That's the main selling point of democracy." Competitive elections require a demonstration of...something. The main point of crisis (aside from Trump) in American politics is how few seats in Congress are actually competitive.

So, we have a system that should eschew dynasties. But we have the Kennedys.

Yglesias takes on RFK, Jr's descent in conspiracy theories as a chance to talk about conspiracy theories in general, but he glides over the most salient part: John F. Kennedy was a mediocre president. He does talk a lot about the dual tragedies of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King's assassinations in 1968, which very well could have altered the course of American history. His take - and it's solid - is that had both men lived, RFK likely wins the presidency in '68 and King spends the rest of his life working on economic issues that extend beyond African Americans.

If this had happened, presumably RFK gets us out of Vietnam, the city burning riots of '68 don't happen and Nixon's Southern Strategy fails. I'm not sure how an RFK administration deals with stagflation and the economic turmoil of the '70s that may have been the deciding factor leading to Reagan, but an unlikely partnership between RFK and MLK to take the next step in the welfare state - universal healthcare maybe - could have reshaped America.

Yglesias's point was to address the theories surrounding John Kennedy's assassination that was mainstreamed by Oliver Stone. What's so fascinating about Stone's absolutely ridiculous theory was that he posits that JFK would've gotten us out of Vietnam. In fact, Kennedy was bound by the same logic of containment that bound LBJ.

Regardless, we do have a Kennedy dynasty hovering around the edges of American politics. RFK, Jr is maybe the prime example of this, though we did have a Kennedy run for Senate in Massachusetts. RFK, Jr's descent into lunatic conspiracy theories would be bad enough, but the idea of basing a political dynasty on the lineage of John Kennedy is a triumph of style over substance and romance over reality. JFK was a mediocre, possibly bad president whose esteem rose only as a result of his assassination. 

All dynasties are bad. Your name signifies nothing about your inherent merit as a person or a public servant. To use one example, Fred Trump actually built stuff, Donald simply become a celebrity brand and Don, Jr and Eric are epic failsons. 

I hope RFK Jr's campaign dies the same death that Marianne Williamson's did and will. He's a quack and a charlatan. 

But even if he wasn't, all dynasties are bad by definition.