Political Gymnastics

Seriously, are you ready for another round of Presidential debates? Moreover are you ready for another Bush in the Whitehouse? Jeb Bush has written a book about immigration and is making many in the GOP very happy because , although at this point he is being coy about it, he is going to run. It is almost a requirement that one writes a book before running for President.

I like Politifact. They are on-line and in most newspapers .And,they have a way of separating the wheat from the chaff. In this particular case they have chronicled Old Jeb's immigration Flip,Flop,Flip a particularly tricky maneuver for even the most skilled political leader. So follow along as Jeb goes one way, then another, and back again...then he really makes a denial. Don't you just love these guys.

As it says in Politifact early on Jeb went one way;

"Early in his political life, Bush expressed a hard-line, deportation-driven opinion and made no mention of granting citizenship or legal status to illegal immigrants."

He was actually going to deport all of these undocumented people. I quess if his brother can get us into a ten year war Jeb could line up all the school buses we own and drive millions of people across the Rio Grande. What a nice guy.

Politifact then says;

" Sometime between 2009 and 2012, he "flipped" to being in favor of a path to citizenship. He supported federal legislation in 2007 that allowed children of illegal immigrants to become citizens, and wrote frequently that Republicans should adopt a more welcoming approach. In June 2012, he clearly articulated support for a pathway to citizenship."

There used to be a term used to describe some Republicans..."compassionate conservatives" and this "Flip" would be an example of compassion. Having a path to becoming an American citizen for the undocumented would make our country truly Exceptional. After all the work done by this group and the length of time spent doing all of this work should count for something. Especially when you realize that the U.S. Government encouraged their going to and fro across the Rio Grande.....by doing nothing about it for years and years and by looking the other way as the crops were picked and the chickens were processed.

So now , as I mentioned,  he writes a book. Politifact remarks that, "His "flop" came this month with the release of his book, in which he explicitly opposed citizenship, calling it an "undeserving reward" for people who came here illegally."

I see this flop...as a bowing of the candidate's head to the ultra conservative teaparty faction of the GOP. Before Jeb can run in a general election for President he has to win primaries. To win primaries a candidate needs to have the hard base of the party on his side. Jeb is running and he wants all those evolution denying, immigrant deporting, climate change doubting , AR-15 toting tea partying republican occupants of the base to love him. And, they will.