I have been as critical of Bush as any - well, that's probably an overstatement, I'm sure I've been outdone on that - and I agree that he is conservative and he had successes as Florida's governor. Hell, he might be the very best of the Bushes as a "conservative" for that matter (that is one problem right there but for later).
He might have been great in the 80's or 90's. But he, like his family, is very out of touch with the state of the country. We have been immigration-ed and refugee-ed to death...literally to death. The influx is killing this country just like Europe may be coming to realize it is killing them. It is not racism. It wouldn't matter if they were white, green, red or chartreuse Martians. We cannot solve the world's problems, including their population issues. And we are killing our country by trying to take in mass immigration as a safety valve for poor, destitute lands that are not solving their own problems. Oh, and by the way, our greedy Chamber of Commerce sees cheap labor - and our own companies and small businesses can't make ends meet without it because we've piled impossible regulations, paperwork, taxes and requirements on them, mostly by our desire to be Green. And that is killing us.
On both of these major problems, Jeb is completely out of touch. He's out of touch with our economy and he's out of touch with the social change at the community level from the mass influx of poor immigrants that we cannot assimilate. To top it off, he's the candidate of the big donor - the people this nation, left and right, are rejecting as part of the cabal that got us to this place in the last 20 years or so.
And then finally, his name is "Bush." The family of two presidents that were both complete and utter failures. How he can't see those optics I don't understand (maybe he does but he wants to ignore them and hope everyone else in the country can't see it because he is as narcissistic and power hungry as he claims others are).
Finally, ideology is yesterday for "conservatives." Can someone point out where "conservatism" has a majority, or even a significant plurality? Where are the success stories...no mark that, where on earth has it even ever been given the opportunity to have success? Conservatism is a red herring...or maybe it's the Great Pumpkin. Republicans chase conservatism - and conservatism NEVER wins, it never even appears. It doesn't get off the drawing board. It is a meaningless, empty platitude. That is all it is today. It is not a governing philosophy - to be a governing philosophy it has to actually govern somewhere. It never has...even during the golden years of Reagan, it only had bits and pieces. So perhaps we ought to ditch that idea and find something that can actually work in a pragmatic world.
Jeb is far from out of touch on immigration. The problem is that people have a predetermined opinion on Jeb, and they assign that opinion on who he is to him.
Read this book... published in 2014:
http://www.amazon.com/Immigration-Wars-Forging-American-Solution/dp/1476713464 Here a few salient points:
Reduce family-based visas: Bush wants to make it easier for spouses and minor children of those in the U.S. to get visas. However, he also wants to bar siblings, parents, and adult children of those in the U.S. from applying for family-based admission, which would significantly reduce the numbers of immigrants allowed in because of family ties.
He wants States to have a greater say so on which immigrants receive government services.
He wants to give State and local authorities more power to enforce immigration laws.
He wants to get rid of the current "diversity" method of picking who gets to migrate to the US and replace it with something more traditional
He would grant legal statues to a certain number of illegals already in the country, but not citizenship... something that he and Ted Cruz agree on.
He wants to use microchips and biometric data to track visitors to the US in order to control visa overstayers
More enforcement against employers who hire illegals
Bush would provide more border security through increasing real and virtual fencing, drones, and border agents. He'd extend Homeland Security's authority to the 50 national parks that are within 100 miles of the border. Finally, he'd authorize the president to deploy military and the National Guard to secure the border.
That's all in the book.
There are things that some may object to, like increasing the number of H1B visas, but only when that workforce benefits the nation. He wants to do a brain drain on the world and bring them here.
He would grant citizenship to DREAMers.
Not a bad plan, but most people will find something that they disagree with and discard the whole thing along with the candidate.
I've never met anyone with whom I've agreed with on every single issue.
Finally, the last name.
To me, not voting for a person based on his last name makes about as much sense as voting for one because of the color of their skin, or their gender.
Then again, that's where we are as a country these days.
Benito Mussolini is smiling.
