Among the many complaints I have seen about this squalid presidential election -- the most dismal choice of major-party nominees since 1856 -- there's one that I find missing: that it shows how our politics have become less republican.
That's republican with a small r, in contrast to royalist. This is not an entirely new trend, but it is one that has reached a dismal culmination.
In his magisterial book "The Origins of Political Order," Francis Fukuyama shows how the progress toward good government -- "getting to Denmark" is his phrase -- involves a change from the familial to the institutional. Progress comes when a nation has a competent state, the rule of law and public accountability.
The course of this election can be seen as more familial than institutional, with key roles played by the Clinton family, the Bush family and the Trump family.
The Clintons, by deciding that Hillary Clinton would run for president at age 69 despite possibly significant health problems, effectively foreclosed the Democratic nomination and prevented a younger generation of Democratic politicians from competing.Read the rest from Michael Barone HERE.
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