Jeb?

 

Jeb BushI am an admirer of Jeb Bush. He was a first-rate governor in Florida. Unlike Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, or Marco Rubio, he would not have to learn all that much on the job. He has executive experience. He has dealt with emergencies. He knows where the buck stops, and I am confident that he would handle foreign policy well.

This is no small matter. Foreign-policy competence is the sine qua non for everything else. Defending the national interest is the main reason we have a federal government. Paul, Cruz, Rubio — none of them has ever run anything larger than a medical practice. They would make freshman mistakes, and you and I would pay dearly for their blunders.

That having been said, I am wary of Jeb. He is too close to the Chamber of Commerce. He is too sympathetic to illegal immigrants. I would not trust him to put an end to the mass influx into the United States from abroad, and I do not like his stance on Common Core. He is a big-government Republican who is perfectly happy to encroach on state and local prerogatives. There is no way that he would cut back on the administrative state. With the right folks running the show, he would think, all will go well.

Nor is there any evidence that Jeb recognizes the threat we face domestically — the threat attendant on intrusive government. He has said next to nothing about the scandals plaguing the Veterans Administration, the IRS, the State Department, the EPA. I could go on. What we have witnessed in the last six years is the death of constitutional government. Barack Obama has shown us how a President can function as a dictator — taking the vaguely written laws served up over the last 80 years by a supine Congress and twisting them any way he pleases. To date, I have seen no evidence that Jeb has even noticed. He — and nearly all of his competitors — seem unaware of the fact that, wherever there is a concentration of unchecked power, it will be abused … in time. That is why we have — or had — constitutional government. That is why the restoration of constitutional government is the most important question we face today.

As I said, I admire Jeb. I have long admired him. But I can tell you the exact day when I decided to write him off as a Presidential contender — 3 May 2009 — the day I learned that on 2 May, after meeting with Mitt Romney and Eric Cantor, he told the press:

[T]hat it’s time for the Republican Party to give up its “nostalgia” for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.

“You can’t beat something with nothing, and the other side has something. I don’t like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that,” Mr. Bush said.

“So our ideas need to be forward looking and relevant. I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia and the good old days in the [Republican] messaging. I mean, it’s great, but it doesn’t draw people toward your cause,” Mr. Bush said.

“From the conservative side, it’s time for us to listen first, to learn a little bit, to upgrade our message a little bit, to not be nostalgic about the past because, you know, things do ebb and flow.”

That is what 2008 taught Jeb Bush; and, to judge by his failure to speak up about the abuses perpetrated by the Obama administration, he has learned nothing since.

In my lifetime — except in the years stretching from 1980 to 1988 — the Republican Party has been half-heartedly fighting and losing a rearguard action. It has been the party of resistance and acquiescence. Jeb Bush, for all of his virtues, resembles Thomas E. Dewey — a highly competent executive who, in opposing the Taft-Hartley Bill, proudly termed himself “a New Deal Republican.”

Surely we can do better than that.

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  1. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    Americans will come out in force to vote against another Bush
    Get real.

    • #1
  2. Klaatu Inactive
    Klaatu
    @Klaatu

    Paul A. Rahe: He is a big-government Republican who is perfectly happy to encroach on state and local prerogatives. There is no way that he would cut back on the administrative state. With the right folks running the show, he would think, all will go well.

    I believe he cut government and privatized a couple of state agencies as governor.  This problem does not seem to have affected him then.

    • #2
  3. DocJay Inactive
    DocJay
    @DocJay

    Nice article from an admirer who realizes Jeb isn’t the one.

    Alas, it doesn’t matter what you, I, Peter Robinson or anyone thinks at all.  This includes the American voters since the Jeb gang is counting on Bernie or Hillary as a chump opponent.

    Who Jeb matters to is a very very small group of inordinately wealthy people.  Jeb is here to stay because they have so very much to gain ( at our expense).

    • #3
  4. BrentB67 Inactive
    BrentB67
    @BrentB67

    Klaatu:

    Paul A. Rahe: He is a big-government Republican who is perfectly happy to encroach on state and local prerogatives. There is no way that he would cut back on the administrative state. With the right folks running the show, he would think, all will go well.

    I believe he cut government and privatized a couple of state agencies as governor. This problem does not seem to have affected him then.

    His brother did the same in Texas. However, it didn’t carry to the White House.

    • #4
  5. BrentB67 Inactive
    BrentB67
    @BrentB67

    This is a great post and very credible. It correctly highlights what is good about Jeb Bush. It also highlights the specific conundrum that his candidacy presents.

    This is no small matter. Foreign-policy competence is the sine qua non for everything else. Defending the national interest is the main reason we have a federal government. 

    He is too sympathetic to illegal immigrants. I would not trust him to put an end to the mass influx into the United States from abroad,…

    Foreign policy, national defense, and sovereignty begins at the U.S. boarder.

    • #5
  6. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    I heard Jeb’s! position in Common Core while tutoring the young daughter of a friend with her math. Those who concocted that malarkey should be taken out and flogged.

    His “act of love” drivel kicked open the door that the Donald has charged through.

    Add to all that the disinclination to vote for another Bush for president, and this is shaping up to be a very grim campaign.

    • #6
  7. Leigh Inactive
    Leigh
    @Leigh

    Paul A. Rahe: “You can’t beat something with nothing, and the other side has something. I don’t like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that,” Mr. Bush said.

    So on this bit of it he’s actually right, if blatantly obvious — you can’t beat something with nothing. And you can’t just appeal to the past. So far so good — the problem is what you do with that.

    What unique new forward-looking thing — conservative or otherwise — is he promising again? Have I missed something?

    • #7
  8. jetstream Inactive
    jetstream
    @jetstream

    Jeb? Nancy Reagan said it best -“just say no!”.

    • #8
  9. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    I refuse to support any dynasties.  We are getting way too close to a parody of the end of the Roman Republic when only a handful of Patrician families could have a chance at winning the Consulship.  Two Bushes is enough. One Clinton was too many.

    • #9
  10. Paul A. Rahe Member
    Paul A. Rahe
    @PaulARahe

    Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    • #10
  11. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    I was enthusiastic about Walker and Cruz.

    Maybe when Trump stops sucking all the oxygen out of the place they can make a move.

    • #11
  12. Frozen Chosen Inactive
    Frozen Chosen
    @FrozenChosen

    As a candidate, Jeb makes Mitt look like Reagan.  Could the guy be any more bland?

    I think Jeb would make a decent president but there’s no way he gets enough votes to make it.

    • #12
  13. Paul A. Rahe Member
    Paul A. Rahe
    @PaulARahe

    Kozak:

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    I was enthusiastic about Walker and Cruz.

    Maybe when Trump stops sucking all the oxygen out of the place they can make a move.

    I hope so. I very much liked Walker. Cruz I heard speak at a Hillsdale graduation. He was not as awful as Romney was said to have been. But he embraced John Rawls at the outset and gave everything away. It was as if this fiercely intelligent man had not thought things through.

    • #13
  14. Frozen Chosen Inactive
    Frozen Chosen
    @FrozenChosen

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    Paul, with our whacked-out electorate you need to get enthusiastic about any Republican who can actually win the job (with the exception of Trump, of course).  Any of them will be light years better than Hillary.

    • #14
  15. Paul A. Rahe Member
    Paul A. Rahe
    @PaulARahe

    Frozen Chosen:As a candidate, Jeb makes Mitt look like Reagan. Could the guy be any more bland?

    I think Jeb would make a decent president but there’s no way he gets enough votes to make it.

    Right. Look. He is a fine man. But he is not adequately thoughtful. My sense of Mitt is that he learned — too late, perhaps, and too little. But he learned. Jeb seems to have stopped learning in November, 2008.

    Alas!

    • #15
  16. Paul A. Rahe Member
    Paul A. Rahe
    @PaulARahe

    Frozen Chosen:

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    Paul, with our whacked-out electorate you need to get enthusiastic about any Republican who can actually win the job (with the exception of Trump, of course). Any of them will be light years better than Hillary.

    Even Kasich?

    By the way, since the summer of 2014, I have been convinced that Hillary would not make it. That conviction waxes.

    • #16
  17. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Paul A. Rahe:

    Kozak:

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    I was enthusiastic about Walker and Cruz.

    Maybe when Trump stops sucking all the oxygen out of the place they can make a move.

    I hope so. I very much liked Walker. Cruz I heard speak at a Hillsdale graduation. He was not as awful as Romney was said to have been. But he embraced John Rawls at the outset and gave everything away. It was as if this fiercely intelligent man had not thought things through.

    John Bordley Rawls ?

    • #17
  18. Roadrunner Member
    Roadrunner
    @

    Who gave Jeb! all that money and what do they expect for it?

    • #18
  19. Mike LaRoche Inactive
    Mike LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    Jeb would be a lousy nominee. And his son isn’t doing a terribly good job here in Texas, either.

    • #19
  20. Leigh Inactive
    Leigh
    @Leigh

    Paul A. Rahe:

    Frozen Chosen:

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    Paul, with our whacked-out electorate you need to get enthusiastic about any Republican who can actually win the job (with the exception of Trump, of course). Any of them will be light years better than Hillary.

    Even Kasich?

    By the way, since the summer of 2014, I have been convinced that Hillary would not make it. That conviction waxes.

    Kasich rubs me the wrong way. (I am one of those who not only objects to his Medicare expansion but decidedly does not appreciate his rationale with its implication that conservatives like Walker were hardhearted and in violation of Scripture for turning down that big-government Trojan horse.)

    But every time I make this point on Ricochet someone who knows his record better jumps up to tell me that, in the broader context, he’s really not all that bad. I don’t see voting for him in the primary, but he’d unquestionably be better than Hillary.

    • #20
  21. Frozen Chosen Inactive
    Frozen Chosen
    @FrozenChosen

    Paul A. Rahe:

    Frozen Chosen:

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    Paul, with our whacked-out electorate you need to get enthusiastic about any Republican who can actually win the job (with the exception of Trump, of course). Any of them will be light years better than Hillary.

    Even Kasich?

    By the way, since the summer of 2014, I have been convinced that Hillary would not make it. That conviction waxes.

    Even Gilmore or Graham! (not Pataki, though)

    • #21
  22. Basil G Inactive
    Basil G
    @BasilG

    Professor Rahe.

    I was so grateful for the post, following the “That having been said…” part.

    Common Core?  Because Big Education is exactly 50/50 Democrat to Republican in influence, right?  Well, there’s certainly nothing wrong with the University System.  Right?  Check-Check, so let’s hurry and consolidate all of education into on one big central program with one huge on/off switch.  Oh dang, Jeb.  You didn’t see that coming.

    I would not vote for Jeb were he the candidate.  Not sure if that falls into  Courage of Conviction category since I live in CA and my vote is never consequential anyway….thanks to the immigration plan Jeb wishes to export the the country.)

    • #22
  23. BrentB67 Inactive
    BrentB67
    @BrentB67

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    You are correct sir. There is much value in clarity.

    Jeb is a man and governor of integrity. What Florida needed in leadership at the end of last century isn’t necessarily what the nation needs in this century. He is upright and qualified for the position, but like his peers he is tone deaf to the public and kept by the donors at right to rise.

    The sooner we realize this and have gentlemen like you addressing it eloquently we can hopefully find our way forward.

    • #23
  24. BrentB67 Inactive
    BrentB67
    @BrentB67

    Mike LaRoche:Jeb would be a lousy nominee. And his son isn’t doing a terribly good job here in Texas, either.

    No kidding.

    • #24
  25. E. Kent Golding Moderator
    E. Kent Golding
    @EKentGolding

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    Get Enthusiastic  about Carly and Cruz.   Walker may recover his footing,  and Marco Rubio  would be good on most issues other than immigration — and it is entirely possible that he learned from being played as an idiot on that one.   No one who has been played as an idiot wants it to happen again.

    • #25
  26. Paul A. Rahe Member
    Paul A. Rahe
    @PaulARahe

    Leigh:

    Paul A. Rahe:

    Frozen Chosen:

    Paul A. Rahe:Someone, please, show me that I am wrong! I would like to have someone to be enthusiastic about.

    Paul, with our whacked-out electorate you need to get enthusiastic about any Republican who can actually win the job (with the exception of Trump, of course). Any of them will be light years better than Hillary.

    Even Kasich?

    By the way, since the summer of 2014, I have been convinced that Hillary would not make it. That conviction waxes.

    Kasich rubs me the wrong way. (I am one of those who not only objects to his Medicare expansion but decidedly does not appreciate his rationale with its implication that conservatives like Walker were hardhearted and in violation of Scripture for turning down that big-government Trojan horse.)

    But every time I make this point on Ricochet someone who knows his record better jumps up to tell me that, in the broader context, he’s really not all that bad. I don’t see voting for him in the primary, but he’d unquestionably be better than Hillary.

    I am with you.

    • #26
  27. WI Con Member
    WI Con
    @WICon

    I’ve been thinking a lot about the discord in the party/movement lately. This split is old and has festered for decades. I think we’ve been able to smooth hings over by borrowing, printing money, consuming.

    I listened to some podcast about Reagan and comparing him to Trump (there is none). What I did realize though is that there were Republicans that disliked Reagan just as much as Democrats.  Rockefeller Republicans, Bush Republicans (let’s be honest here, Reagan picked H.W. Bush to unify the party but they came from very different intellectual & philosophical places).

    Reagan rejected the status quo, (“we win, they lose”) the Bush’s ‘manage it’. It runs in the family.

    Time for that family tradition to end.

    • #27
  28. hokiecon Inactive
    hokiecon
    @hokiecon

    Jeb is an admirable character. He is reserved, reticent, and has a presidential demeanor: he’s the only one among the GOP cohort with those characteristics, but the CoC is his true master, just like Hillary. It’s scary to say this, but Trump seems to be the only candidate running his own show unfettered by any palm greasing.

    • #28
  29. BastiatJunior Member
    BastiatJunior
    @BastiatJunior

    Paul,

    On Jeb! I’m close to where you are.  There’s a lot to like about Bush, and unlike most folks around here I like his immigration positions.  But there are a few things that are disqualifying. Like Common core.

    He simply doesn’t have the visceral dislike of big government that I would like to see in the next President.  I can’t escape the feeling that he would be different as President than he was as Governor.

    • #29
  30. BastiatJunior Member
    BastiatJunior
    @BastiatJunior

    Jeb’s tax plan is better than Rubio’s or Romney’s from 2012.

    But there is a feature that annoys me.  Business interest expense is not deductible, the rationale being you should have the capital in the first place.

    That is, if you have to borrow money to increase your production capacity or to otherwise expand your business, too bad.

    • #30
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