Four makes a trend, I suppose:
- Anthony Kennedy steps down from the Supreme Court, replaced by his former clerk, Brett Kavanaugh.
- Stephen Breyer steps down from the Supreme Court, and the nominee to replace him is his former clerk, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
- Richard Shelby is retiring from the Senate, and endorses his former chief of staff, Katie Boyd Britt, to replace him.
- Jim Inhofe is retiring from the Senate, and endorses his chief of staff, Luke Holland, to replace him.
This is not an entirely new development in American politics. Politicians have often tried to handpick a successor, whether a family member or a former subordinate. At one point, we had three consecutive presidents (James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams) who had served as the secretary of state for their predecessor. Voters are sometimes skeptical of those dynastic efforts, which is healthy, and the resulting choices are often good ones. Still, it should concern us a bit in general to see the anti-republican spectacle of a self-replicating ruling class.