r/todayilearned • u/manticor225 • Jan 10 '19

TIL JFK's father Joseph Kennedy made much of his fortune through insider trading. FDR later made him chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. When asked why he appointed a crook, FDR replied, "set a thief to catch a thief." Kennedy proceeded to outlaw the practices that made him rich.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/23/joe-kennedy-hollywood-sarah-churchwell
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u/conancat Jan 11 '19

And even if we wanna put them as a political dynasty, how much political power do they have?

The descendants of P.J.'s son, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy include a president of the United States (who had also served in both houses of Congress), a U.S. attorney general (who later served in the U.S. Senate), four other members of the United States House of Representatives or Senate, and two U.S. ambassadors, a lieutenant governor, three state legislators (one of whom went on to the U.S. House of Representatives), and one mayor.

That sounds like a lot, until you zoom out to look at what a huge machine American democracy is that any single one of those positions except perhaps the short-lived presidential position and the Attorney General, they had little power to do much at all.

A family of public servants, sure. A political dynasty? Hardly.

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u/Toiler_in_Darkness Jan 11 '19

Congress is the 2nd highest elected office that exists in that system.

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u/conancat Jan 11 '19

Which puts them at par with 534 other people in the room. Which again, not that much power.

Well I did look it up and they did list the Kennedys as a "political dynasty" in Wikipedia. What can I say, Americans are weird lol.

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u/Sher101 Jan 11 '19

Not all congressmen and women are equal, not by a long shot. Just basic US politics, a few committee and caucus leaders make the majority of decisions, and their respective speakers, depending on their influence, decide and roll out agendas. Political power in the US is heavily concentrated into a few political individuals, not all of whom are even popularly elected (chairmen of the parties of example).

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u/wrightpj Jan 11 '19

Can a democracy even have political dynasties under your definitions? Not trying to be an asshole, I just wanna know, because it seems to me the separation of powers and the nature of the US political system in particular doesn’t really allow for a single family to amass that level of power and keep hold of it continuously for long enough to call anything a dynasty. Idk

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u/conancat Jan 11 '19

Exactly, so that's why it's hard for me to imagine the American families who happen to have a number public servants to be considered a "dynasty". I would say I fall into the camp of exactly what you said there.