Today President George W. Bush, 43, is sworn in for to second term in as President. The President's father, George H. W. Bush, is himself was a former president. The President's brother, Jeb Bush, is the current the Governor of Florida. The President's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U.S. Senator from Connecticut. The Bush family is an American political Dynasty. The dynasties of ancient China lasted at most three hundred years. The United States is only a little over two hundred years and the Bush dynasty has had an influence in the political arena all the way back to about a hundred years. It is also speculated that the current President will not be the last Bush to hold the office of the President of the United States.
But the Bush Dynasty was not the first in American politics. I would say that the first political dynasty was that of the Adams. John Adams was the first vice president and the second president. John Adams was a cousin of Samuel Adams. Samuel Adams is perhaps more famous today for the beer that bears his name but he was also a famous American revolutionary. John Adams' son, John Quincy Adams, was the sixth President. The Adams' was the first family to produce both a father and a son that would both hold the office of president. Charles Francis Adams was the son of John Quincy Adams and also a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
The Kennedy family only produced one president but the Kennedy family has nonetheless had an influence in American politics by providing several senators, representatives, and ambassadors. The Kennedy family enters into politics with Patrick J. Kennedy as a Boston democrat. Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr., the son of Patrick J. Kennedy, served as ambassador to the United Kingdom. John F. Kennedy, son of Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr., became president of the United States. Robert F. Kennedy, brother to John F. Kennedy, was a Senator from New York and a candidate for the Democratic nomination before he was assassinated. Currently there are two Kennedy family members in public office. Edward M. Kennedy, brother to John F. Kennedy, is a senator from Massachusetts. The son of Edward Kennedy, Patrick Joseph Kennedy, is currently a representative from Rhode Island. Also in the Kennedy family, Maria Shriver, granddaughter of Joseph Patrick Kennedy is married to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the current Governor of California.
There have been many other families whom had had great influence in American politics. For example, the Rockefellers which has produced a multiple of senators and governors as well as dynastic fortunes. The Taft family started its political life with Alphonso Taft as U.S. attorney general under Ulysses S. Grant to produce a President to produce two senators to produce the current governor of Ohio. The Taft family has had over one hundred years in the American political arena.
The dynasties of China such as the Wei and the T'ang lasted for centuries. The United States as the oldest democracy in the world has a relative young history compared to countries from the Old World and yet the American political dynasties have had as much influence in the world as the Wei emperors had on the history of China. But as we can see from Chinese history on many occasions, ruling dynasties where often disposed by the people when those in power grew isolated from the citizens of the empire and at the same time politically weakened by internal conflicts and barbarian encroachment.