Two families, one dynasty

Re “Dynasties are harmless,” Opinion, June 22

We keep hearing about the “dynasty” candidates, identified as Republican Jeb Bush and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, as if they are somehow equivalent. Sure, it makes for a good story line, but it promotes a false equivalence.

The word “dynasty” conjures images of hereditary generational control of nations or empires, such as the monarchies of Europe or the emperors of China, with power handed down across generations.

This is certainly exemplified by the Bushes, a family of old East Coast hereditary wealth now in its third generation of power ( Sen. Prescott Bush, then President George H. W. Bush, then President George W. Bush) and preparing a fourth generation ( Texas land commissioner George P. Bush).

But it hardly represents the Clintons, two members of the same generation and immediate household, arising from modest origins and rising to the highest pinnacles of achievement entirely on their own individual merit and work.

Douglas Dunn

Escondido