Look Past Jeb’s Stutter and Find a Viable Moderate

bush gop

10/28 GOP Presidential Debate

I had great expectations for Jeb Bush. He’s a moderate, squats on PAC money, has a Hispanic wife, and towers over the other candidates. He’s from the swing state of Florida and speaks Spanish fluently. In a squabble of clowns, Jeb looks almost too perfect to be true, his sole vice being the infamous Bush namesake that wouldn’t even matter in a Bush vs. Clinton showdown. Unfortunately, Jeb is boring; too boring and too slow. At first I thought it was strategic: slow and steady wins the race, right? But Jeb is heading down the wrong path, walking the funeral march into oblivion without even a glimpse of the white house.

This weekend, I caught a glimmer of hope. In South Carolina, Jeb conducted an interview with Alan Wilson, heated over polls led by buffoons Trump and Carson, both of whom have had no prior political experience. “If this election is about how we’re gonna fight to get nothing done, then I don’t want any part of it. (…) I’ve got a lot of really cool things that I could do other than sit around being miserable listening to people demonize me and me feeling compelled to demonize them. That is a joke. Elect Trump if you want that.” Jeb was mad. Yes, he was mad. The cool, calm, 6’ 3” teddy bear seemed to be ignited, perhaps finally propelling the jetpack needed to carry him out of 4% territory. His anger gave me hope. Who knows? Maybe the Wednesday night’s CNBC debate will be the turning point of Jeb’s sluggish campaign.

However, Wednesday night was full of ironies – paradoxical statements from Bush that would complement even the best of satire novels. Bush opened up the debate with his biggest weakness being that he was “impatient,” a trait that contradicts his current campaign trail; Bush seems pretty darn patient to me, as I’d expect more fire from an alleged impatient and angry giant. And then spewed the infamous Bush/Rubio altercation. Despite Jeb getting worked up over candidates merely “demonizing” each other, he readily demonizes Rubio, accusing him of missing too many votes on the Senate floor. Rubio easily threw off the attack, pointing out the hypocrisy of Bush considering the former Florida governor’s previous support for John McCain who missed even more floor votes than Rubio, claiming that Bush only attacked him because Bush thinks that it would help his own polls. Ironically, Bush committed the crime for which he had just called out other candidates: he demonized fellow GOP candidates rather than focusing on the issues that really matter.

Additionally, Jeb made a factual error. Regarding the claim that his $19 billion dollar tax cuts have created 1.3 million jobs, Bush fell prey to a statistics101 fallacy: correlation does not imply causation. These job figures are a result of many factors, factors that cannot be classified under the single $19 billion dollar tax cut. And the $19 billion dollar tax cut itself? It’s a figure that Bush manipulated, erroneously, to include such cuts as the repeal of the federal estate tax: something Bush was not directly responsible for.

Nonetheless, Jeb made some great points. On why Jeb plans to tax labor more than income from investments, he notes that it would help small businesses, so that “we can create high sustained growth for income to rise.” Jeb additionally supports less Federal involvement, particularly in public education – a topic Bush frequently boasts about, citing his success in Florida with common core. Jeb notes, in opposition to Bernie Sander’s infamous free college tuition for all proposal, that “we don’t need the Federal Government to be involved with [higher education], because when they do we create a $1.2 trillion debt.” And of course, there can be no CNBC debate without a round about Medicare and Social Security. Bush declares that we need to reform Medicare and Social Security, that “the simple way to do it is to make sure that the wealthiest don’t receive the same benefits as people that are lower-income,”. Bush’s solution? We need to enhance private market saving with the long-term solution of growing the economy.

From a superficial perspective, Jeb’s debate performance was no better than his previous, marked by wheezes, coughs, and stutters; choked before the words even left the mouth. Despite the moderators’ clear biases, never giving Bush ample time to speak and attacking him with irrelevant questions of Fantasy Football and poll numbers, Bush’s policies are sound. Look beyond the surface: Jeb Bush is more than the typical rhetoric spewing buffoon. If nominated, Bush is a moderate capable of winning the presidency.

Catherine Zeng

Catherine Zeng is a loony. A loony I tell you. A loony.

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