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The Bulwark is disappointed in Jeb
J V Last has an article about Jeb Bush’s endorsement of DeSantis. It’s behind a paywall, but he tweeted out what I assume to be his salient points:
If Ron DeSantis’s governorship has been good for Florida, then why didn’t Jeb pass a “Don’t Say Gay” bill when he was governor? Why didn’t Jeb take over the New College of Florida to push a conservative agenda? Why didn’t Jeb offer a bill to outlaw the teaching of “theories” in undergraduate courses? Why didn’t Jeb spend taxpayer money to ship refugees to Martha’s Vineyard? Why didn’t Jeb move to take away Disney’s special zoning arrangement? Why didn’t Jeb appoint a vaccine skeptic as his state surgeon general?
After all, if these are good policies for the people of Florida, Governor Bush had the opportunity to enact them himself. Why didn’t he?
Piquant points! Let’s take them one by one.
Why didn’t Jeb pass a “Don’t Say Gay” bill when he was governor?
This is somewhat confusing, since DeSantis didn’t pass a “Don’t Say Gay” bill either. The only relevant part of the bill that has to do with any of this:
Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age- appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.
This really, really bothers some people.
Most of the bill concerns the rights of parents, which really, really bothers some people, too.
Why didn’t Jeb take over the New College of Florida to push a conservative agenda?
Because he’s an old-style moderate Republican who has an antique notion of college as a place where the values of our civilization are handed down to the young. Oh, sure, they’re full of liberals, but you know, kids figure it out. We all go through that phase.
Also, there’s something a bit untoward about actually teaching history and politics from a conservative point of view. It’s a bit much. You want kids to get all sides. So the liberal faculty teaches both sides with cool impartiality, giving equal weight to all competing ideas, but conservative faculties ram through an agenda? Well the professors you get for a school like that are rather . . . ideological. It’s one thing to believe these things, but these guys, they really believe it. I mean, we’re talking Gadsden flag bumper stickers.
Why didn’t Jeb offer a bill to outlaw the teaching of “theories” in undergraduate courses?
Here we see the true anti-intellectualism of DeSantis blaring to the fore: the man is opposed to theories. Why, the entirety of intellectual inquiry is based on theories, and the man wants to ban them with a stroke of a pen. Sensible Jeb would not ban theories, lest it cripple the ability of students to understand gravity.
DeFenders of DeSantis would make tiresome objections to this, noting that the “theories” were in fact doctrines of racial essentialism based in a creed that regards every institution in the country as fatally tainted by racism and incapable of reform, but they would, wouldn’t they? What they really want is a sugar-soaked curriculum full of noble Pilgrims, Founding Fathers, then some handwaving about the early 19th century, then the whole white-savior narrative about the Civil War, and then it’s on to pushing out the savage Redman so the Rotarians and other God-fearing men can bust the sod and conjure cities out of the dirt while Jesus floats over the nation, nodding in approval. Black history shall not be taught, except in a lesson about how the Harlem Globetrotters solved a mystery with the Scooby-Doo gang once.
It’s possible Jeb would have urged legislation to ban teaching of “theories” that advanced racial essentialism, if such a thing was happening in his tenure, but these theories were, at the time, in larval state in higher education. Which of course was an utterly neutral medium in which they found no particular nutriments.
Why didn’t Jeb spend taxpayer money to ship refugees to Martha’s Vineyard?
Because Jeb has friends there, and wouldn’t like to see them troubled by the logical conclusion of their political viewpoints? It’s possible.
Why didn’t Jeb move to take away Disney’s special zoning arrangement?
I don’t know. I’m not a TrueCon who is conserving conservatism so the whole thing about fellating the satraps of corporate city-states doesn’t come naturally to me.
Why didn’t Jeb appoint a vaccine skeptic as his state surgeon general?
Maybe he’s an anti-immigrant racist who hates poor people?
Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD, is the State Surgeon General of Florida. He also serves as Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida, where his research examines behavioral economic strategies to reduce cardiovascular risk in low-income and disadvantaged populations.
Born in Nigeria, Dr. Ladapo received his medical degree from Harvard and PhD in Health Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he received the Harvard Medical School Class of 2012 Resident Teaching Award and the Daniel E. Ford Award in Health Services and Outcomes Research from John Hopkins University.
Also – and this seems so obvious I suspect I am missing Last’s point entirely – Jeb did not have to deal with a pandemic during his tenancy.
In fact, he didn’t have to deal with a lot of things that now sluice through modern politics, but one suspects he wouldn’t have done much if these issues had presented themselves. He was a fundamentally decent man, and fundamentally decent men do not object to middle-school trans awareness pageants. But having seen what DeSantis does, he is apparently impressed, and endorses DeSantis’ pro-active, bully-pulpit, happy-warrior approach.
The Bulwarkians, understandably dismayed, sigh, and draw a line through his name on the sheet of paper that contains the Names of the Good.
But first they dip the quill in the inkwell, so the line may be strong from start to finish.
Published in General
I, for one, want non-Trump Republicans to win.
Oh, no doubt the great divide in this country is being revealed as less about Republicans vs. Democrats and more about the elitists vs. the citizens. This is why I mock anyone who denigrates populism, because what they’re really saying is “I love elitism!”
I resemble that remark!
Really? I think you resemble VDH.
Yeah, Bulwank writers going after VDH, . . . a man more knowledgeable than all the Bulwank writers put together . . . surely revealed where they really stand.
You mean…
Does not compute. Does not compute. Warning: Does not compute.
I was thinking that looks like Anthony Stewart Head (“Giles” from Buffy The Vampire Slayer).
Maybe you do (I’m not convinced though), but the Bulwark types you dig so much, have made pretty clear they want Democrats to win, against any Republican. Sykes may be posting that no one is worse than Trump, but I’d give you better than even odds that Sykes and Co. will not be backing any current GOP front runner over a Biden or any other Democrat ticket.
But Gary is fine with that, as long as the dog-catchers in Arizona are Republican.
Bulwark’s attack on VDH is when I decided to finally write Jay Nordlinger off entirely. His simping for the very people who were openly and publicly attacking a pretty non-controversial conservative writer at a publication Nordlinger still works for was a bridge too far (over and above his typical self-righteous preening.)
For once we are in total agreement! Good to see :)
They have Kristolized into shimmering gems of irrelevance.
With only one exception, Tom Horne, I voted for every Republican except the six who had been endorsed by Trump in the primary. All of those Republicans who I voted for won.
***Nothing*** is the same. Forget about it.
Pro- Murkowski. Anti- Bob Lee. Pro-ranked choice voting.