Jeb Bush, in what he viewed as a heroic act, sided with the liberal media, the major unions, big business, and the majority of the Democrat Party and stated that illegal immigration is a crime on the books but is really just “an act of love.”
The full quote is:
“Someone comes to this country because they couldn’t come legally, they come this country because their families, a dad who loved their children was were worried that their children didn’t have food on the table. And wanted to make sure their family was intact and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love, it’s an act of commitment to your family”
Based upon Jeb’s constant stuttering and inability to finish a full thought without starting a new one — a Bush family trait — this comment seems not to have been prepared. It’s very likely what the former Florida Governor actually believes.
It’s compassionate conservatism 2.0, rather than just expanding the federal bureaucracy to help the disenfranchised poor, Jeb would go one step further and actually negate criminal activity for tens-of-millions of people in the name of compassion. These people are, after all, natural Constitution-loving, law-and-order Republicans in the making.
But if you’re going to start excusing crimes, why should Bush stop with illegal aliens? There are a lot of crimes that are misdemeanors that one could are argue are done in the name of love.
Like shoplifting. In Texas, shoplifting is broken down into three different classes as a misdemeanor, the most severe being Class-A, where a criminal steals from $500 to $1,500 in property.
But what if a criminal was stealing food for his family? Or clothes? Or school supplies? What if they were just stealing property to give away as Christmas gifts to the disenfranchised? Could all of this be forgiven under the Presidency of Jeb Bush?
There are myriad different laws across the country that are misdemeanors; could someone be forgiven if acting against the law with the correct intent? In New York, misdemeanors include assault in the third degree and inciting a riot – maybe if Al Sharpton felt like inciting another riot, Jeb Bush would let him off since it was in the name of social justice.
After all, according to the philosophy of Jeb Bush, someone, such as an illegal immigrant who commits a crime by breaking into the United States, is not likely to go on and commit any other future crimes.
Jeb’s statements were not only idiotic — that blanket amnesty of crimes would not result in more crimes (See Reagan’s amnesty in 1986). They also go against the Republican Party’s ideology and politics in favor of being soft on crime.
Republicans have done remarkably well running tough-on-crime campaigns; Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent-Governor Pat Brown in the 1966 election for California Governor. Richard Nixon won the Presidency in 1968 after Republicans had suffered defeats in seven of the previous nine elections; Nixon’s tough on crime policies would help create the new majority, the Republican coalition that would deliver victories in six of the next nine elections. Rudy Guiliani won two elections for Mayor of New York City — against a six-to-one Democrat advantage — primarily due to his policy on crime.
Jeb Bush is very conscious of his image problem, he’s a Bush and he’s a Republican, but if blanket amnesty and soft-on-crime-policy is Jeb’s way of making the new Bush and the new Republican, it’s going to be met with the same results as Mitt Romney and John McCain.