Jeb Bush: GOP should be like Democrats, except cheap (not just the "old white guy party")

Jeb Bush - the highly treasured brother of the former highly treasured president - appeared at George Washington University last night and said:

Bush criticized Republicans for giving the impression that the GOP is the “party of no.” He told the group that Republicans are often “too nostalgic” and that the party needs to be more “forward looking” in order to regain national success. Bush reminded the audience that voter demographics are changing and called for the party to become more “youthful” and to abandon their image as “the old white guy party.” “Tone matters,” Bush said, “in twenty or so years our country will have a minority majority.” ...But this doesn’t necessarily mean that the party must move towards the center. When asked by a student if the party platform needed to become more moderate on social issues, Bush replied, “no.” Rather, he stressed that Republicans “need to apply conservative principles to 21st century problems.” Emphasizing “economic prosperity” is an issue which he believes can both unite conservatives from all wings of the party and attract new voters. Bush told the crowd that President Obama was turning the country into a European socialist state and killing innovation.

Part of Bush's message is one of extreme vapidity: very few people are truly strong fiscal conservatives. They might say they are, but try to take away their Social Security and see what happens. Above a certain level of "economic prosperity", social issues are more salient. Would most religious people trade an extra saving per month in exchange for widely-available abortions? How much would religious people pay per month if, for instance, they could avoid Planned Parenthood clinics being as omnipresent as McDonalds'? By concentrating on financial issues, the GOP would only be slightly more popular than the Libertarian Party, which isn't that popular at all. That doesn't mean that the GOP should become the bread-and-circuses-for-cultural-conservatives party that Karl Rove seemed to think would lure Hispanics to the GOP. It just means that Bush isn't fighting the real battles. He's supporting Gramscian concepts instead of opposing them; he's supporting how the Democrats obtain and maintain power instead of undercutting them.

As for changing demographics, the smarter thing would be to discourage identity politics and undercut far-left racial power groups; Bush is doing the opposite and making the GOP's position worse. His idea of outreach would be like his brother's: speaking to far-left racial power groups that have state chapters that think our border might not be valid, only to be met with disinterest at best. He's making white sound like a bad thing, he's falsely implying that the GOP discriminates against non-whites, and he's basically sounding like a Democrat and playing right into the hands. It would be great if he, his brother, and all the rest did actually flee to Paraguay and give the rest of us a break from their family. Maybe we could get George Soros to pay their way, although he might refuse since the Bushes are doing his work for him.

See also the "National Council for a New America".

Fri, 10/23/2009 - 19:50 · · Importance: 4