01/31/2012
Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, is married to Columba Garnica Gallo, from Guanajato, Mexico, and is the father of the half-Mexican George P. Bush, who seems to have been indoctrinated by his mother as a Hispanic race warrior. George P. Bush told a Hispanic Republican rally in 2000 that "She told me we have to fight for our race, we have to find the leaders who represent us". [Reuters, August 2, 2000]
Indeed, a racially-charged article about George P. by Filipino journalist Emil Guillermo was published under the title Bush Blend Brings Cool To White GOP, Sacramento Bee, August 4, 2000.
Jeb, the former president’s younger brother, is supposed to have been the Bush family’s hope for the Presidency. (For years, no one took George W. seriously.)
We were afraid there was danger of a Jeb Bush candidacy — National Review fawningly put him on its cover in February of last year. But he obviously realizes that Bushes are a drug on the Presidential market for some time to come. However, the fact that Jeb hasn’t endorsed any of the other candidates suggests that if the other GOP candidates manage to knock each other out…he may force himself to be available for a draft.
In a recent blog post, discussing Charles Murray’s “bubble” thesis that the elite is becoming disconnected from regular Americans, I said that Jeb Bush is “one of the biggest elitists in the country”.
Frankly, you can’t get more disconnected from the experience of regular Americans on factory floors than being a member of the Bush family. The fact that they seem to feel some emotional connection to regular Mexicans, invading the US and taking over the factory floors, makes it worse, not better. (See my article about Paula Rendon, George W. Bush’s Mexican nanny — note that W. said that “Paula became like a second mother to my younger brothers and sister and me.”)
Now Jeb Bush has published a much-discussed pro-amnesty article in the Washington Post, Four ways Republicans can win Hispanics back, January 25, 2012. (Because the Washington Post really wants the GOP to win, and thinks that this is how to do it.)
Here it is in full, with my comments in bold face:
Jeb Bush, a Republican, is co-chair of the Hispanic Leadership Network Conference and a former governor of Florida.
[JF: You would think in a country the size of the United States the Hispanic Leadership Network could find an actual Mexican — Mexican-American if you prefer — to be co-chair of this conference, but they can’t. Jeb Bush, who’s married to a Mexican immigrant, is one, and Carlos Gutierrez, Cuban-American former Secretary of Commerce is the other. All the major GOP Hispanics are Cuban — Mel Martinez, Marco Rubio, and even Ted Cruz, who National Review considers a “Great Reaganite Hope” in Texas is Cuban. The GOP’s seeming inability to sign up even one Mexican-American for these leadership roles does not bode well for its Hispanic outreach program.]
In the 15 states that are likely to decide who controls the White House and the Senate in 2013, Hispanic voters will represent the margin of victory.
[JF: This is numerical sleight of hand. The only sense in which this is true is if a given state is 3 percent Hispanic — only adult citizens count, of course — and the margin of victory will be three percent. Therefore, if all Hispanics voted the same way, they might swing things. But in reality, the majority of them will vote Democratic anyway, and the election will be decided by swings in the white vote.]
For the Republican Party, the stakes could not be greater. Just eight years after the party’s successful effort to woo Hispanic voters in 2004, this community — the fastest-growing group in the United States, according to census data — has drifted away.
[JF: Or, putting it another way, it was never there.]
Although Democrats hold the edge, Republicans have an opportunity. We also have a record of winning Hispanic voters in certain statewide and national elections. Here are four suggestions on how Republican candidates can regain momentum with the most powerful swing voters.
First, we need to recognize this is not a monochromatic community but, rather, a deeply diverse one. Hispanics in this country include Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and many others. Some came here 50 years ago to make a better life; others came last year. Some have lots of education, some have none. The traditional Republican emphasis on the importance of the individual has never been more relevant.
[JF: In effect, “not a monochromatic community” means it’s not a community at all — except as defined by opposition to the rest of America. White Cubans like Marco Rubio have little in common with Mexican Indians and mestizos, nor with Salvadorans and Puerto Ricans.]
Nevertheless, there are common features and dreams across this community. Hispanics understand, either personally or through close family members, what it means to come here as an immigrant. They know how hard it is to function without a full working knowledge of English. They have often felt the sting of prejudice and the threats of gang violence.
[JF: From other Hispanics, mostly.]
They tire of the stereotypes built by the media and some politicians. Like all voters, Hispanics respond to candidates who show respect and understanding for their experiences.
[JF: These “stereotypes: do not come from the “media,” which refuses to say anything bad about Mexico or Mexicans even after a mass murder. Nor do they come from those Republican politicians willing to take a stand against illegal immigration. They come from the common experience of mankind, and there’s nothing you can do about it. ]
Second, we should echo the aspirations of these voters. The American immigrant experience is the most aspirational story ever told. Immigrants left all that was familiar to them to come here and make a better life for their families. That they believe this is possible only in America is the best expression of American exceptionalism I know. And on this score, Republicans have a winning message and record as the party of the entrepreneur. We are the party of the family business, and the family business is the economic heart of Hispanic communities.
[JF: Actually, no, it isn’t. Most Hispanic immigrants are not entrepreneurs, they’re wage earners — the so-called “jobs that Americans won’t do” are mostly paid by the hour. They’re entrepreneurs only in the sense that they’ll do day labor or engage in peddling when they can’t get jobs because they’re illegal.]
Third, we should press for an overhaul of our education system. Republicans have the field to themselves on this issue. Teachers unions and education bureaucrats have blocked Democrats from serious reform — it will happen only with Republican political leadership. But we have to move beyond simplistic plans to “get rid of the Department of Education” and focus on substantive, broad-based reform that includes school choice, robust accountability for underperforming schools and the elimination of social promotion, in which kids are passed along without mastering grade-level skills. Such improvements, it was noted in 2009, plus efforts to embrace digital learning, helped Hispanic students in Florida lead the nation among their peers. And Hispanic voters, who often feel their children are trapped in failing schools, notice.
[JF: It may be true that Hispanic students in Florida “lead the nation” among their peers, supposing their peers to be other Hispanics in Texas and New Mexico. It’s also the case that Hispanics in Florida tend to be whiter, on average, than Hispanics in other states. “Not monochromatic,” remember? This can’t be duplicated by providing Mexican immigrants in the border states with the tools of “digital learning.”]
Finally, we need to think of immigration reform as an economic issue, not just a border security issue. Numerous polls show that Hispanics agree with Republicans on the necessity of a secure border and enforceable and fair immigration laws to reduce illegal immigration and strengthen legal immigration.
[JF: Which brings me to an interesting point: All links in Jeb Bush’s text here are in the Washington Post original. If you click on these links, two of which go to CIS and FAIR, they don’t actually strengthen his case. But Jeb Bush may not be responsible for that. They may have been added by an H-1B visa holder on the Washington Post staff who doesn’t realize that FAIR’s idea of immigration reform is different from Bush’s.]
Hispanics recognize that Democrats have failed to deliver on immigration reform, having chosen to spend their political capital on other priorities.
Republicans should reengage on this issue and reframe it. Start by recognizing that new Americans strengthen our economy.
[JF: No they don’t. Economic growth is mostly captured by the immigrants themselves, in the form of wages. The rest is gained by employers. Losers: American workers, and American taxpayers.]
We need more people to come to this country, ready to work and to contribute their creativity to our economy. U.S. immigration policies should reflect that principle. Just as Republicans believe in free trade of goods, we should support the freer flow of human talent.
[JF: This is a non-sequitur — free trade is fundamentally distinct from free movement of labor, because goods are not people. Anyway, Republicans historically did not believe in free trade. They supported American nationalism]
We need to connect immigration to other pro-growth policies, so that new Americans can apply their talents here and succeed. The United States needs an economy that is vibrant and dynamic, open to the contributions of new entrants. We have to reduce regulations across our economy, whenever they impede economic dynamism and flexibility in the labor market. We need secure energy supplies, radical tax reform and a reduced footprint of power of the state.
Immigration reform requires economic reforms. We must be able to assure new Americans the opportunity to succeed and contribute their talents.
And when they come, as surely they will, we must welcome them, no matter whether they speak Spanish or Creole or Portuguese. When we hear foreign languages in the streets of America, that is a validation of the Republican vision to create a place where people want to come and make their lives.
[JF: Bush means that no one is trying to break into North Korea, which is true. But actually, when “we hear foreign languages in the streets of America” we’re seeing the transformation of America into something that isn’t America any more. And the question is: why is this (Hispanic) flow the right one? Why not, for example, Belarussians?]
Hispanics here speak or are learning English — not French, Chinese or Hindi. There is a lesson in that, and Republicans should be the ones to champion it.
[JF: Actually, it’s not true that Hispanics are learning English, or want to. And the lesson is: that America should, like the French, Chinese, and Indians, get control of immigration flow. If the GOP can get that lesson, they can win elections without worrying about the much-hyped Hispanic Vote.]
Conclusion: All of this suggests that, when talking about immigration, Jeb Bush simply may not have the best interests of the United States at heart.
Yes, it’s a tough thing to say. But there’s a lot of evidence for it — see The Bush Betrayal: Maybe He’s Not Thinking But Feeling — Family Feeling, Mexican Style, by Steve Sailer.
That’s why we call it The Treason Lobby.
James Fulford is a writer and editor at VDARE.com
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.