“We’ve had enough Bushes,” said Barbara Bush two years ago, dismissing the idea of her son Jeb running for President. Her husband and another son both already held the highest office in the world.
Though the media is staging 2016 as the ultimate showdown between political dynasties — Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton — it looks like the culture shares Barbara’s lack of enthusiasm for either of these “establishment” politicians.
In a recent poll taken by Quinnipiac University, Jeb only takes the lead in his home state of Florida, dropping down around 10 percent support in other key swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. In the key primary state of Iowa, Jeb only received 5 percent support from potential voters. In other words, roughly 90 percent of voters want a candidate other than Bush. Here are three reasons why:
- With two former presidents in his immediate family, Jeb Bush is more a part of the Republican establishment than anyone in history. Long gone are the days when conservatives and tea party members go along with whomever the GOP tries to coronate. It didn’t work in the last election and it won’t work this time. We need voters to help select a candidate instead of the political machine.
- The mindset from former Bush presidencies – that the government is the solution – is no longer welcome.Government has increased in size, spending, and ability to regulate Americans’ private lives, whether a Democrat or Republican held the presidential office. Now, sixty percent of voters believe that government has grown too big.
- Jeb Bush’s name carries the stigma of “big government” but he also actually believes in it. Bush supports an amnesty-style solutionto the immigration crisis — no doubt a politically expedient position in Florida, where he was the first and only Republican governor to win reelection. (Marco Rubio lent his support to a similar bill in 2013, but he’s changed his tune.) Also, Bush says that illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay and receive legal status, without regard to the irreparable damage that will cause.He also sides with the government and against American citizens when it comes to education as a longtime supporter of federal intervention in educational standards through Common Core. Parents and teachers across the country hate it and the principle used to formulate it. The standards themselves have been shown to be ineffective, because a cookie-cutter approach to our children’s education — handed down from the federal government on high — is not the American way of doing things.
On the other side of the “political dynasty showdown,” of course is Hillary Clinton. She appears to be the Democrats’ “chosen child” for 2016, right? (Quick: name other possibly Democratic challengers. Did the names Martin O’Malley or Bernie Sanders come to mind? I didn’t think so.) She too has barely gotten out of the gate before running into potentially candidacy stopping obstacles: Benghazi. Personal email servers. The Clinton Foundation.
Comparatively, Bush is untainted by scandals and seems to be a logical choice for Republicans looking to oust the Democrats. However, conservatives nominate him at their own peril.
Before conservatives try to beat Hillary, they first need to beat Bush.
Hey, Jeb… Sometimes momma knows best.
Mark Meckler is president of Citizens for Self-Governance and a co-founder of the Tea Party.