[Mb-civic] Fathers, Sons and Questions - Jim Hoagland - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Fathers, Sons and Questions

By Jim Hoagland
Thursday, August 11, 2005; Page A23

Texas and Saudi Arabia have much in common. Oil. Vast tracts of 
scrubland. And political dynasties. No wonder King Abdullah is the only 
foreign leader to have two bilateral meetings with George Bush at the 
president's sun-baked Crawford ranch.

If conversation about OPEC or Middle East peace lags, they can always 
turn to what it is like to follow Dad's footsteps to the top. They 
belong to what historian Wolfgang Schivelbusch labels the "postheroic 
generation" of victors' sons -- leaders who are called on to "preserve 
their fathers' achievements" and to "produce great deeds of their own."

Actually, I would be amazed if they did talk about that; sons of famous 
fathers usually hate the subject. But they should talk about it. More to 
the point, their citizens need to talk about and weigh the pluses and 
minuses that political nepotism creates.

Americans turned to a father-son combination for two of their past three 
presidents, and now flirt with moving the Clinton family back into the 
White House. Somehow, American presidential politics is all in the 
family at the moment. That has happened before, with the Adamses, the 
Kennedys and others. But the willingness to go with brand names is more 
pronounced today, and it occurs in more challenging times.

Abdullah's ascension to the throne two weeks ago also raises fresh 
questions about the durability of Saudi Arabia's unusual succession 
system, which keeps power in the family but away from the next generation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081001799.html

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