Public Employee Press

Part 2 in a series
Political Action 2006
The Bush Family: An American dynasty

Building its economic and political power base over four generations through a network of financial, oil and military-industrial business connections, the Bush family has become an American dynasty.

The Kennedys have been called the royal family of the United States, but the description better fits the Bushes, key players in the higher circles of the global economy who have captured the 41st and 43rd presidencies and the Florida governorship.

With deep roots in the Middle East, the Bushes have close ties to the Saudi royal family. After serving as president, George H.W. Bush joined the Caryle Group, a private investment firm, which counted members of the bin-Laden family among its Saudi backers.

The current president’s brother, Marvin, has had business links with the al-Sabahs, the Kuwaiti royal family that the first Bush administration protected by sending U.S. troops to kick out Iraqi occupying forces in 1991.

A lack of social responsibility
An uncle, William H.T. (“Buck”) Bush, is a director of the St. Louis-based company Engineered Support Systems, owner of the Maryland-based Technical and Management Services firm whose communications technology supports U.S. logistics operations in the Middle East, including Iraq.

A generation earlier, grandfather Prescott Bush — who served as U.S. senator from Connecticut after managing the Brown Brothers Harriman investment firm — owned the Zapata Petroleum company.

President George W. Bush, of course, had his own failed oil venture in Texas before a powerful group of Republicans tapped him to be the public face of the Texas Rangers baseball team, permitting him to build his own power base and run successfully for governor.

Whereas wealthy and politically powerful families like the Kennedys and the Rockefellers have shown a sense of social responsibility, the Bush dynasty has defined itself by crony capitalism, personal enrichment and conservative policies (such as tax cuts) that support only the wealthy, according to Kevin Phillips in “American Dynasty,” an unflattering picture of the family’s rise to power.

It’s a family history that has produced political and economic arrogance.

Analysts have speculated about Bush’s motives for toppling the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq — protecting U.S. access to Middle Eastern oil, democratizing the region or running a vendetta against the authoritarian ruler who once tried to assassinate his father. With no real evidence of weapons of mass destruction or an al-Qaeda link in Iraq, surely, the arrogance of power that comes with heading an American dynasty influenced Bush’s decision to go to war.

— Gregory N. Heires