Jeb Bush: A bipartisan punching bag
- By Mitchell Blatt
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, December 30, 2014
Immigration reform
On the other hand, Bush has an opportunity to win Hispanic votes due to his support for immigration reform and his cordial relations with the Hispanic community in Florida. Bush has done business with prominent Hispanics like Armando Cordina, and he is married to a Mexican-born Hispanic woman, Columba Gallo. He supports an immigration reform bill that would allow for many of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States to become legal immigrants after passing a set of qualifications.
In his electoral career, he has done well in the Hispanic community, winning 61 percent of the Hispanic vote in the 1998 race for the governor's office and close to 57 percent in 2002. It is worth noting that the Hispanic vote in Florida is different, consisting of a large amount of Cuban refugees who are especially Republican-leaning, but Bush's margins did vastly outperform currently Florida Governor (and Republican) Rick Scott, who only won 38 percent of the Hispanic vote. (Playing to the Cuban heritage anti-Castro voters, Bush and his fellow Florida Republican Marco Rubio, who is also talked about as a potential candidate, both attacked President Obama for his decision to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba.)
Bush's advantage here in the general election is, however, to his detriment in the primary season, where much of the conservative base fiercely opposes any kind of immigration reform that will allow for illegal immigrants to soon become legal.
"Socialist" trolling
Most of all, what the Tea Party seems to hate about Bush is his values. He's pragmatic. He is willing to compromise. He sits on the board of a charitable foundation run by Michael Bloomberg, a former New York City mayor and the 13th richest person in the world. Just shaking hands with an "east coast New York City limousine liberal" can disqualify someone from being a "true conservative" in a Tea Partier's eyes. The Tea Party attaches political meanings to a lot of cultural markers, and they enjoy invoking guilt by association.
Ironically, the man, Jeb Bush, who told a reporter in 1983, "I want to be very wealthy, and I'll be glad to tell you when I've accomplished that goal," was a member of the school socialist club in high school. The word "socialist" applies to anyone who breaks with the Tea Party any little bit on any issue, and now they have themselves a real one, if only from a few decades ago. It will probably just end up being a funny bit of trivia, just like the news reports about how Mitt Romney "bullied" a classmate in high school and Barack Obama ate dog in Indonesia. But maybe it says something about Jeb. For much of his younger life, he was considered the more successful of the two oldest Bush children and the one more likely to have a big career in politics back. He was considered then and now to be open to considering new ideas. Those values, which may have contributed to him once considering socialism, are also what contribute to his unconventional (within the Republican Party) ideas on immigration and education reform. And it's those values that may prevent him from winning his party's nomination.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)