NPR:  Broadcast 01/15/04

Most analysts have looked at the Bush Administration as an independent administration, albeit one that took on people from the past. But historian Kevin Phillips sees Bush II as part of a dynasty that stretches back before Bush I to the rise of the major industrialists of the Gilded Age. In the Bush Dynasty, Phillips sees an entrenched elite, fostering a military industrial complex with ties to foreign elites, surrounded by a cloud of secrecy, enmeshed in intelligence, corruption and a tendency away from basic democratic principles. Phillips sees the dangerous growth of an American Royalty at odds with basic Republican principles. And he has the footnotes to back it up.

A conversation with Kevin Phillips about his new book American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and The Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush. He probably will have to turn in his Republican Party Card after this book.

Guest:
Kevin Phillips, author of American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and The Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush