Posted on 02/14/2009 4:43:12 AM PST by Jim Noble
His grandfather Prescott Bush was a U.S. senator, and his father and brother were presidents. Yet Jeb Bush doesn't believe in political dynasties, and seems perfectly willing to let his family's legacy of serving in high office in Washington pass him by.
But Mr. Bush becomes animated when talking about ideas and policy innovations -- he's an unorthodox Republican who latches onto reform ideas wherever he finds them. He's a fan of the school system in Sweden (more on this below)....
"Beyond the ideas and all of that," Mr. Bush says the GOP must be a national party. That means "we need to be competitive in California,"...
Republicans must also clean up their act on immigration, Mr. Bush insists. Last year, he says they "set a tone" that pushed Hispanic voters away. "The tone of the debate reached a point that was very damning to the Republican Party, and the evidence is in. The chest pounders lost."....
Mr. Bush supports immigration reform as championed by his brother and John McCain, which would allow illegals already in this country to stay. "Politics has to be about ideas and values and aspirations." he says. "It shouldn't be about anger and preying on people's emotions. You can't lead a mob."...
Mr. Bush has kind words for Mr. Obama. He was the first Democrat to win Florida since 1976, and Mr. Bush has nothing but praise for his "spectacularly well-run campaign....
Mr. Bush has a personal motive for urging Republicans to "avoid personal, partisan attacks" on Mr. Obama, a strategy they've largely followed in Washington. "I would never want Obama to go through what my brother went through.... But it's not right for our country, it's not going to help us, and it's not going to help Republicans."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Besides, most of the Reagan Dems voted for Nixon and Reagan due to "bussing", "crime", and "open housing." Those issues are not as relevant as they once were.
We need to move above and beyond Reagan. We also need to somehow reduce the population on the left side of the bell curve, and our lack of immigration enforcement is not exactly helping that.
WRONG! Bill Clinton won Florida in 1996, and Al Gore would have won Florida had it not been for Clinton's sending Elian back to Cuba.
Obama won Florida thanks to the "housing crisis" that has hit Florida hard, and the Puerto Rican vote in Orange (where Obama won by 10 points) and Osceola counties, to say nothing of high black turnout.
That being said, we have basically become the Scots Irish smalltown Protestant party. Our share of the WHITE vote has dropped considerably. We’ll see 1. if Obama screws up enough to drive away white suburbanites and 2. if the GOP actually fields a competant candidate that can both appeal to conservatives (without being a snake handler) and to suburbanites outside of the south as well.
They, for the most part, fear and/or despise political Evangelicals, despite some commonality of interests.
This is a big problem for the coalition. I think the Rove plan was to replace them with Hispanics.
Reagan Democrats are, for the most part, social liberals IN MODERN TERMS. They don't like in-your-face lefties, but they sure don't like Bible-thumpers who might be in a position to tell 'em what to do.
Yes, Kabar, but we can’t even get an overwhelming majority of the WHITE vote anymore. If you see the areas that voted for McCain, you will see that it was basically in the Scots-Irish belt that stretches from Central PA down through Oklahoma. We can’t seem to break through to Lutherans in the upper midwest, white Catholics in the northeast/Great Lakes, or non-Calvinist whites anywhere.
To which Irish Catholic Reagan Democrats are genetically allergic.
My Obama-voting, devout Catholic relatives seem to hate evangelicals more than they do secularists (which, speaking as a right wing secular humanist, makes me feel comfortable at a personal level). Nevertheless, the Nixon/Reagan Democrats were all about bussing, crime, and neighborhood integration. I lived through those times as a child, and remember those as major motivating issues. They certainly weren't fans of free market economics, or of a reduction of government employment (so many of them being municipal employess/trash collectors/cops, etc.).
The tensions between Irish Catholics from the northeast/upper midwest/interior west and the Scots Irish from the south within the Democratic party in the 20th century are an often untold tale. While the evangelicals and Catholics on this site like to paper over differences, the not-so-closeted dislike between the groups is very palpable, even if only at a subconscious level.
Just another arrogant, elitist member of the Bush family from Connecticut. He also skips right over the fact that the US accepts about 1,200,000 legal immigrants and refugees each year, and jumps right into looking down his nose and insulting anyone who isn't 100% for legalizing 12 - 20 million illegal aliens, then allowing those millions to gradually bring in many millions more through chain migration.
No thanks, Jeb. Your family has already done incalculable damage to the Republican party. And Fred Barnes is a Beltway halfwit.
Stay out 'da Bushes!
“Republicans must also clean up their act on immigration, Mr. Bush insists. Last year, he says they “set a tone” that pushed Hispanic voters away.”
I would vote for Barak Hussein Obama before EVER voting for this man.
“the GOP is now liveral as the communist democrats”
This is simply not as true as make it out to be. The votes on the Socialist spending bill yesterday prove that.
I think a little closer examination of history will prove that notion 100% wrong. The early Americans had far superior firepower and other weaponry, and they were greatly outnumbered by the Native Americans.
Also, a few hundred Spaniards and few hundred non-Aztec allies under Cortez defeated tens of thousands of Aztecs. About the same with Pizarro and the Incas. Firearms, horses and European weapons made of steel were too much for the Native Americans, and the pale faces were almost always outnumbered during the first century or so of encounters.
Nevertheless, our laissez faire immigration policy has brought in too many left side of the bell curve types over the past thirty years (although I must admit that many of the LEGAL East Indians, Koreans, Russian, Poles, and Iranians are a benefit in terms of intellect and/or entrepreneurial skill). Time to enforce immigration laws, give preference to the skilled and educated, and discourage morons from breeding.
Hellbender, Please address my earlier post to you about the regions of the US that were settled by southern and Eastern Europeans being the most liberal in the nation (apart from the pacific northwest and the Finn/Swede socialist areas in the upper midwest)? Maybe you should be more specific as to the ethnicity of those Europeans who support your ideals?
That's why I don't take the "will of the people" crowd that seriously. The mass of people are too disorganized and too diverse in their interests/religion/ethnic background to effectively govern for a long period of time. Pareto's iron law of oligarchy always comes into place, whereby a willful, organized minority (yes, and elite) ALWAYS rules due to the aforementioned problems with the masses.
All it takes is a Conservative candidate and you will have your heart's desire... Otherwise, keep on yowling, for all the good it will do you...
I couldn’t agree more.
Exactly. The apple didn't fall far from the horse.
Exactly right. McCain received 55% of the white vote compared to Bush's 58% in 2004. If McCain had won 59% or 60% of the white vote, he would have won the popular vote. Exit polls suggest that the black share in 2008 (goosed upward by Obama’s presence on the ballot) was 13 percent, the Hispanic share was 9 percent, and the white share 74 percent. Whites still decide elections.
We can’t seem to break through to Lutherans in the upper midwest, white Catholics in the northeast/Great Lakes, or non-Calvinist whites anywhere..
The Reps make a mistake when they try to play identity politics. They would be much better off identifying cross-cutting issues that affect everyone across racial and ethinic lines. Immigration is one such issue if it is played right. Who is hurt the worst by the importation of largely unskilled labor, legal and illegal? Minorities and legal immigrants who see their jobs lost and wages depressed.
What group finds itself heavily impacted by the costs and services associated with immigration? The elderly who live on fixed incomes who see their property taxes rising to fund increasing school enrollment and overburdened hospitals that see their ERs used as health clinics for illegals. By 2030, one in five in this country will be 65 or over. Another group affected is parents with school age children who see the decline their schools due to large populations of students who don't speak English and need special courses to get up to speed thereby raising costs, class sizes, and lowering the quality of education. Minorities are particularly adversely affected.
Approximately 85% of Americans want English to be the official language of this country. Why aren't the Reps leading the charge on this issue? In 2006, an AZ proposition on making English the official state language passed with 75% of the vote.
Our pro-population growth immigration policies have given us the highest population growth rate of any developed nation. Adding another 135 million people in the next 40 years has enormous implications for our energy needs, the environment, infrastructure, schoos, law enforcement, social welfare systems, etc. There was even a huge fight within the Sierra Club about taking a stance on immigration with the proponnets losing a tough and bitter fight.
I could go on and on, but the point is that the Reps must do away with political correctness and take tough positions on immigration. It is a winning issue if played right regardless of the demographic changes taking place in terms of minorities.
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