George bush sr biography bush family wealth

BySarah Crocker

It's often understood that succeeding in United States politics requires quite a lot of money and power. Those two forces are very frequently intertwined, with one helping the other, garnering important political donors or using business partnerships to gain important friends and keep one's political star on the rise.

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Few modern political dynasties understand this more than the Bushes.

Though, as Town & Country quotes, the family would have you believe that their collective fortunes have been made solely through smart management and hard work. Soft power, of the sort that often brings about change through making friends and wielding influence, is also a significant part of the equation.

For later generations, the mere fact of their family name also appears to have gotten them into some pretty key positions, from the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale, to other Ivy League institutions, to lucrat