Bush vs Romney Fathers & Sons: Three Georges and a Willard Mitt.

… And hundreds of millions of dollars all in the family… And lots of changing minds on important positions.

… And a dash of George Romney brainwashed for good measure.

02/01/12 Update on the popular issue of Romney’s wealth: Wealth for the rest of the non-super-rich people is sometimes hard to visualize, so the Associated Press recently helped us understand Romney’s wealth that we can put into an equation: Romney = 2 x (Obama + W Bush + Clinton + HW Bush + Reagan + Ford + Nixon)

(note the “2 x” part…) Said in words: Romney is twice as wealthy as the last 8 presidents of the United states combined. That’s serious money.

Insofar as Mitt’s father, George W. Romney’s, is concerned the size of the trust fund is difficult to estimate. He was a CEO of American Motors Corporation (AMC… makers of the famous Pacer, thank you Wayne and Garth), and governor of Michigan for three terms. He was also secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Nixon, and ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968. It’s safe to say there was at least a trust fund, but Mitt Romney has said he “gave away” his inheritance that his father left him:

“What I got from my parents when they passed away I gave away to charity and to my kids. And so what I’ve earned has been earned through my education, my values, living in the greatest country in the world, through some luck and through hard work,” (W. Mitt Romney) said in an interview with Rueters.

Before venturing into  wealthy political family comparisons (and I accept one needs a lot of money to run for office), if you want some background on how the Romney family members have a tendency to change their minds on highly polarized political issues (Romney-flopping), you might want to watch this George Romney “brainwashed” video interview about “changing his mind” regarding the Vietnam War because of  “the greatest brainwashing” by the “generals” and “diplomatic corp.” (Or jump directly below for the Bush vs. Romney family comparison.)

Scenario One In US wealthy family political history: George H W Bush, wealthy oil family with a lot of religion. George HW is followed by his son, George W. Bush, even more religious, and who arguably (especially if you ask anyone who is not a Republican or who does not live in the US) did major damage to the country that will take us another decade or two to clean off all the muck.

The first father-son-ruling-class scenario is apparently being considered now in Version 2 that we’ll call the “Let’s try that again, and maybe it will work better this time” scenario:

Mitt Romney’s father, George W. Romney: extremely wealthy auto industry family (think he was on the cover of Time Magazine at least twice) with a lot of religion… though George Romney was born in Mexico… wonder if his son threw a fit questioning if his father wasn’t eligible to be President of the United States (which he was)).

George Romney ran for president (unsuccessfully), and served as the Governor of Michigan. However, George Romney did NOT, apparently, have the rich-man’s boredom syndrome required from “being unemployed” like his son to give running for President a second try. His son W. Mitt Romney (Willard just so we can claim there’s yet another “W” for the sake of this rather biased argument) is now giving it a second go and we are all amazed at how steadfast and stable he’s been in his beliefs… no really … rock solid Mitt has been; like the big ‘ole cars made from solid steel that his father made.

Does anyone else really want to continue having political and business elite Fathers and Sons being Presidents and Governors of the United States?

Or do we prefer something more like We the People?

[… is it just me, or do they sort of look alike as well… might as well be the monarchy…. yes, that was petty. my apologies. such are the times. I need my own (unaffiliated) super PAC to handle such comments for me… so I can claim ignorance and “shocked! shocked I say!”]

Back on the Romney / Bush / Republican Families topic: I understand that you need a lot of money, and the types of connections and power that result from being rich in order to be able to run for a political office like the President of the United States. That’s not my issue. And, no Mitt Romney, envy is not my issue either. However, there are too many similarities, and too many… “wha?” moments to ignore. There’s also a fundamental sociological lesson to learn about the sons of rich and powerful fathers (that would be a **really** biased opinion), that might be a good thing for us to avoid when seeking people to hire to have as much power as the President wields.

It didn’t work the first time. Are all y’all certain you want to do this again? Honestly, I have much more respect for the fathers, who were much more involved in “creating” the wealth and power of the family. They seemed to have more integrity (at least as much as is possible). The children who were born into it don’t seem to have that characteristic.

Let the second sons of presidential hopefuls remain out of politics. It’s a bad formula. Let Mitt Romney struggle with to whom he will leave all his money.