One has to wonder exactly what Jeb Bush is trying to do even if the statements he is making are 100% on target. Indeed, Jeb Bush's statements echo what I've said before - Ronald Reagan could not win the GOP nomination given the abject insanity of today's Republican Party. Oh, and did I mention that Jeb Bush said that stable same sex relationships should be encouraged? Jeb Bush's heresy could not be more complete. Heads must be literally exploding amongst wingnut Christianist circles. Sometimes speaking the truth isn't popular, but that doesn't make it any less the truth. Here are highlights from BuzzFeed on Jeb's comments on the GOP:
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said today that both Ronald Reagan and his father George H. W. Bush would have had a difficult time getting nominated by today's ultra-conservative Republican Party.
"Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, as would my dad — they would have a hard time if you define the Republican party — and I don’t — as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement, doesn’t allow for finding some common ground,"
Bush cited, in particular, "the budget deal my dad did, with bipartisan support — at least for a while — that created the spending restraint of the ‘90s," a reference to a move widely viewed now as a political disaster for Bush, breaking a pledge against tax increases and infuriating conservatives. It was, Bush said, "helpful in creating a climate of more sustainted economic growth." Politically it clearly didn't work out — he was a one term president," his son said. Bush called the present partisan climate "disturbing."
His remarks to a group of reporters and editors at the headquarters of
Bloomberg LP in Manhattan were the latest in a series of concerns Bush,
one of the best-respected figures in his party, has raised about its
current direction. Other Republicans, including former Arkansas Gov.
Mike Huckabee, have suggested that this GOP wouldn't nominate Reagan,
who raised taxes and made grand bargains with Democrats on immigration
and fiscal issues. Bush also repeated criticism of the "tone" of the
discussion of immigration issues.
With the Bible beaters, Bush's biggest heresy, however, was in the context of how the nation's laws treat same sex couples. Here are highlights from Think Progress:
Although his brother supported a constitutional ban on gay marriage as president, the younger Bush believes America needs all forms of families as parenting examples. He clarified that he personally still opposes same-sex marriage, but despite his platitudes offered a contrast to many of his GOP cohort:
BUSH: I don’t think people need to be discriminated against because they don’t share my belief on this, and if people love their children with all their heart and soul and that’s what they do and that’s how they organize their life that should be held up as examples for others to follow because we need it. We desperately need it and that can take all sorts of forms, it doesn’t have to take the one that I think should be sanctioned under the law.Bush’s statement is not an endorsement of marriage equality. Still, coupled with his other observation about how his father and Ronald Reagan would have a hard time finding common ground in today’s GOP, it does show the potential of a party shift on marriage equality similar to President Obama’s own evolution.
Tony Perkins and Bryan Fischer must be having apoplexy!
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