Parking a link: Whither meritocracy?

Last updated on: January 27, 2014 at 8:10 am by Jane the Actuary

Parking a link: Whither meritocracy? 2014-01-27T08:10:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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As I may have mentioned (or maybe not) I used to think I would get involved in politics; in fact, my original college major was a public policy-type major at Michigan State’s James Madison College. Would I have succeeded, if I had stuck with it? This article by Matthew Continetti from the Washington Free Beacon, originally linked to by the Weekly Standard, says no.

OK, strictly speaking, it says, “not in today’s Democratic party” — in which power is held by and passed on among a small inner circle of people with family or other close connections. Sam Kass was neighbor to Obama in his Hyde Park days, and his father was a teacher to the Obama children. He doesn’t have extensive culinary experience working in top restaurants; he spent the first five years after graduating collge itinerantly travelling; then became family chef for the up-and-coming Obamas. His girlfriend Alex Wagner is the daughter of Democratic party operative Carl Wagner, and got her first D.C. position through the assistance of John Podesta, “‘an old Washington neighbor’ whose relationship with her father was longstanding,” according to the article.

What is happening, Continetti says, is that an American aristocracy is building itself, with personal connections from family relationships and close friendships becoming the name of the game. It’s already frequently-reported that the media and the Obama administration have a close relationship, with people easily and frequently switching roles from journalist to staffer. But I hadn’t really contemplated all these deep ties and relationships.

Is Continetti right? Is the path to top positions of power found in being born in the right politically-connected family, or perhaps next-door to them, or at least being sponsored by someone powerful? Is this specific to the Democratic party, or the Obama administration, or would we be reading the same stories, with different names, had Romney won?

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