I never thought I would be writing anything favorable about a Bush. I blame that family and their cynical use of red meat social issues to cover up their Progressive economic agenda. I blame this tactic for the sad state of the GOP today. That said, I have to be intellectually honest.
The GOP Establishment is doing their best to push Mitt Romney and they have engaged in a war to destroy any Conservative who is a threat to Romney. The latest case is Newt Gingrich. The GOP has launched an onslaught on Gingrich the likes of which they have never launched at Obama. It is clear that they want Romney at all costs. Mitt Romney is using red meat issues cynically to win the nomination. He almost doesn’t care about the general election by pissing off demographics that he would need for a victory. It leads only to one conclusion. He’s aiming to be the sacrificial lamb. If that’s the case, maybe the Establishment should push the man they really want in their hearts, Jeb Bush.
Unlike Romney, Jeb Bush actually had a Conservative record in Florida. Am I claiming Jeb is a Conservative? No way, he’s a Bush and the Rockefeller Republican lineage runs through their veins. But Jeb is clearly to the Right of Mitt Romney. Jeb also doesn’t demagogue ethnic groups to get elected. Yes he might use a bogus red meat issue like school prayer to throw a bone to people, but not in a way that turns people off. Yesterday he wrote an opinion piece for the Wall St. Journal, he calls it the Right to Rise.
Congressman Paul Ryan recently coined a smart phrase to describe the core concept of economic freedom: “The right to rise.”
Think about it. We talk about the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to assembly. The right to rise doesn’t seem like something we should have to protect.
But we do. We have to make it easier for people to do the things that allow them to rise. We have to let them compete. We need to let people fight for business. We need to let people take risks. We need to let people fail. We need to let people suffer the consequences of bad decisions. And we need to let people enjoy the fruits of good decisions, even good luck.
That is what economic freedom looks like. Freedom to succeed as well as to fail, freedom to do something or nothing. People understand this. Freedom of speech, for example, means that we put up with a lot of verbal and visual garbage in order to make sure that individuals have the right to say what needs to be said, even when it is inconvenient or unpopular. We forgive the sacrifices of free speech because we value its blessings.
But when it comes to economic freedom, we are less forgiving of the cycles of growth and loss, of trial and error, and of failure and success that are part of the realities [0’pof the marketplace and life itself.
The Establishment would dump Romney in a heart beat if Jeb Bush entered the race as he is the one they really want. Economic/Fiscal Conservatives rightfully do not trust the Bush family but Mitt Romney is the most Progressive/Left-Wing Republican since the 1800’s. If we are going to run a Liberal Republican, can we have one who won’t piss the base and other groups off? Jeb Bush is heads above Mitt Romney. There’s also a chance he would try to make amends for his father and brother’s Liberalism. He might actually govern as a Economic/Fiscal Conservative. Another advantage he has over his brother and father is that he can actually speak coherently!
This brings another question to my mind. Why not Jon Huntsman? That will be another post.
Anyone but Romney in the primary. Anyone but Obama, (albeit it very reluctantly and I might have to get drunk if Romney is the nominee) in the general. That’s my motto.
For the record, as much as I hated his Progressive economic, fiscal and foreign policies, I would take George W. Bush over Mitt Romney any day!
Update: I am not the only one who is making a worse case scenraio for Jeb Bush.
There’s no doubt some Republicans remain unhappy with the GOP presidential field. They wish other candidates — Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush — had entered a long time ago. But the Iowa caucuses are in two weeks. Is there any chance, at this late date, that something could change?
All the alternative candidates have repeatedly said they won’t run. But there is new speculation focusing on Bush after the former Florida governor turned heads Monday morning when he wrote, in the Wall Street Journal, a campaign-like economic manifesto headlined “Capitalism and the Right to Rise.”
Mitt Romney will be an electoral disaster. Since the GOP Establishment has all but said they would sabotage Newt Gingrich, then clearly a compromise candidate must be chosen that both the Rockefeller Wing and Conservative Wings can agree on. Jeb Bush could fit that bill.
