Without anyone really noticing, politics have truly become a family affair. This problem is no longer restricted to the usual suspects of countries that we always read about.

Naturally, when I think about regimes where everyone in charge is either a family or political ally, many come to mind, like Saddam who had sons Uday and Qusay in positions of power and influence in Iraq, and the repressive one-party government in Zimbabwe that went from exporting food to receiving it from donor nations. In all these cases, it is apparent that political nepotism is prevalent in repressive regimes. However, its prevalence is alive in democratic countries like the United States as well.

In Argentina last week, the people elected Cristina Fern√É°ndez de Kirchner. No matter that the former president is her husband, N√É©stor.

There is no way that anyone can argue her being elected president wasn’t at least slightly assisted by whom she was married to. I recognize that Mrs. Kirchner has been involved deeply in Argentine politics for many years in various posts, but the fact that her husband was the well-liked and outgoing president during her campaign cannot be ignored.

Lech Kaczyński, the president of Poland, was in a bind two years ago. He had trouble at home with his coalition and had managed to annoy the European Union, a talent that we, in America, have mastered in recent years. Worst of all, one of the most popular politicians in Poland, his former prime minister had just resigned his post and a replacement was needed. Kaczyński probably wished he could just fill the role himself to consolidate his power at the time. Since that was illegal, he found someone with a similar genetic makeup and the necessary political experience to fill the post. He hired his twin brother Jaroslaw as he had been expected to do upon his election to his post.

These two examples did not contain any sort of illegal or irregular activity. In fact, America is no stranger to political nepotism either. Family dynasties have dominated Washington, D.C. for centuries. Last names such as Adams, Roosevelt and Kennedy were all over Washington from the Oval Office to Congress. In this era in American politics, two last names have persevered all sorts of political scandals from former President Clinton’s well-documented extra-marital affair(s) to Bush starting a devastating war by deceiving the country. Each family has nonetheless managed to donate at least one presidential library and a second Bush library is on the way. Plans for a second Clinton library remain unknown to this writer.

In America, the problem isn’t that blood is thicker than ballots. The elections held here are free and fair, and all citizens are eligible to vote for whomever they want to. The results are accurate and the best candidate, with apologies to Al Gore, always wins. There is no way to postpone a presidential election in the United States; they are guaranteed every four years. The problem in America is that these families are able to use their political influence and longevity to their distinct advantage by translating it into a staggering amount of monetary political support, which I hear is the best kind of political support.

In any case, since the day Andrew Jackson first held a meeting of the Kitchen Cabinet and even before then, politicians in America have always taken care of their friends and allies. There seems to be very little the public can do about it and it looks as though our only reprieve from the era of Clinton/Bush will be that neither of their children seem likely to make a run for president. Thank God.