fishbob
31st January 2004, 12:02 PM
American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush. I will try to track down a copy and give it a read. Has anybody read this book? Is it a reasoned historical analysis of the Bush family or is it another black helicopter conspiracy theory?
I heard an interview with Phillips on NPR the other day. He sounded reasonable. A similar interview is posted here (http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/01/int04001.html).
A couple of clips from the interview:
BuzzFlash: What are the primary characteristics, as you see them, of the Bush dynasty?
Kevin Phillips: Well, when you get the Bushes, you get really what amounts to a four-generation history of involvement with finance and the oil industry. That's what they've done. They haven't done much else. And their loyalties are enormous toward, first off, an economics of investors and inheritors, as opposed to workers and earners; and, secondly, a very close tie to the intelligence agencies of the military-industrial complex, of which the oil industry has become a major part. And obviously there are the ties to the oil industry and the preoccupation with the Middle East and Texas, and the price of oil. There again, that's a bias which is both economic and geographic.
. . . .
BuzzFlash: Correct me if this interpretation is wrong -- you haven't stopped being a Republican. It's just the Republican Party under the Bushes has stopped being Republican.
Kevin Phillips: No, I haven't stopped being a Republican, in the sense I'm not registered as one. I voted for Ronald Reagan twice. My disenchantment came when the Republican Party did something I couldn't believe it would do, which was take George H.W. Bush and then, in 2000, take his son. The first one boggled my mind. The second one triple-boggled me.
I heard an interview with Phillips on NPR the other day. He sounded reasonable. A similar interview is posted here (http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/01/int04001.html).
A couple of clips from the interview:
BuzzFlash: What are the primary characteristics, as you see them, of the Bush dynasty?
Kevin Phillips: Well, when you get the Bushes, you get really what amounts to a four-generation history of involvement with finance and the oil industry. That's what they've done. They haven't done much else. And their loyalties are enormous toward, first off, an economics of investors and inheritors, as opposed to workers and earners; and, secondly, a very close tie to the intelligence agencies of the military-industrial complex, of which the oil industry has become a major part. And obviously there are the ties to the oil industry and the preoccupation with the Middle East and Texas, and the price of oil. There again, that's a bias which is both economic and geographic.
. . . .
BuzzFlash: Correct me if this interpretation is wrong -- you haven't stopped being a Republican. It's just the Republican Party under the Bushes has stopped being Republican.
Kevin Phillips: No, I haven't stopped being a Republican, in the sense I'm not registered as one. I voted for Ronald Reagan twice. My disenchantment came when the Republican Party did something I couldn't believe it would do, which was take George H.W. Bush and then, in 2000, take his son. The first one boggled my mind. The second one triple-boggled me.