Connect the Dots for a Disturbing Picture. The people in power represent an economic clique whose interests are only superficially tied to the well-being of the country as a whole. In collusion with their delighted big-money supporters, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their Cabinet-level entourage spent years lining their pockets with sweetheart loans, option deals and golden parachutes from oil companies and other related industries.

[Source: [caught In between]]

• Aristocracy: government by the best
• Democracy: government by the people
• Kakistocracy: government by the worst
• Kleptocracy: government by thieves
• Oligarchy: government by class

Aristocrats have always been a prominent element of American government and politics. Scions of rich families achieved respectibility by essaying disinterested government. They have often done very great service to their country: President Teddy Roosevelt's Sherman Anti-Trust Act; his cousin, President Franklin Roosevelt's Social Security; Senators Jay Rockefeller, and Teddy Kennedy, these men have politicked, not to improve the prospects of their own cohort, but to serve the interests of ordinary Americans. Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson were democrats, politicians from the middle class.

Despite his lineage, George W. Bush has proved to be, not an aristocrat, but an oligarch. He uses his office to benefit other members of his class, at the expense of the middle- and working-class Americans. In this respect his regime resembles that of Ronald Regan, who left America's middle-class in a much-less secure state than when he became President.