Madeleine Colbert recently spoke to Russ Baker about the nature of political dynasties and quoted him in her article on the topic for Yale’s The Politic:

How do you start building your political dynasty? Unfortunately, someone has to do the hard work and pave the road to a political office. This could be you, or you can shift the burden to another family member. Russ Baker, investigative journalist and author of Family of Secrets, a history of the Bushes, outlines this scenario.

“There have been people [in America history] who don’t want to be in politics who are the power behind the throne,” explains Baker. “They engineer the election of a sibling or a child who likes the limelight and may be more charismatic. There are a few examples of that actually, where the quieter member of the family was sort of the master planner.”

Go here to read the whole article…