Myth- A small group of powerful families run the US Government?

Myth- A small group of powerful families run the US Government?

Matthew Jones (Political Science Instructor) gives expert video advice on: Myth- A small group of powerful families run the US Government?; Myth- Big business runs our government?; Myth- Big business is against environmental legislation? and more...

It is true that Joe Kennedy, which is JFK, John F. Kennedy's father, groomed his boys to run for politics, and there's a lot of politicians or politics in the Kennedy family. Maria Shriver is obviously part of the Kennedy, and she is married to a governor (or a 'Governator'), And then the Bushes, obviously Prescott Bush. And when you look at these people, this is a very small percentage of the overall number of Presidents, of congressmen, of Supreme Court justices, that we have running our country. Jimmy Carter was part of no dynasty whatsoever. Bill Clinton, when he was first elected, was part of no dynasty, and nobody thought he was going to win when he first got into office. Ronald Reagan, again, part of no dynasty, and neither Nancy nor any of his sons are running for politics. So there's a lot of these. American politics is so volatile that even when you do have certain families that can groom themselves to try and run for politics, there's always those dark horses, those outside candidates that can come in and throw everything into the mix, and there's enough of them that can gain considerable power and alter things that it's really hard to say that any number of these families can control much of politics.