"Fool Me Twice, Can't Get Fooled Again"
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:13 am
The Limits of Jeb Bush's Compassionate Conservatism
The former Florida governor, like his brother before him, is using concern for the poor to distract attention from policies that favor the elite.
If Jeb Bush wants to prove that he’s different from his brother, he has an odd way of showing it. In the video that accompanied Monday’s announcement that he’s running for president, Jeb declared that, “The barriers right now on people rising up is the great challenge of our time” and that “my core beliefs start with the premise that the most vulnerable in our society should be in the front of the line and not the back.” Sound familiar? It should. It mimics George W. Bush’s presidential announcement, right down to the mangled prepositions. “I’ll tell you what’s on my heart,” George W. declared on June 12, 1999. “The purpose of prosperity is to leave no one out, to leave no one behind. I’m running because my party must match a conservative mind with a compassionate heart.” Sixteen years later, almost to the day, compassionate conservatism is back.
Let’s hope that this time, the press isn’t fooled.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/jeb-bush-george-w-bush-compassionate-conservatism/396017/
The former Florida governor, like his brother before him, is using concern for the poor to distract attention from policies that favor the elite.
If Jeb Bush wants to prove that he’s different from his brother, he has an odd way of showing it. In the video that accompanied Monday’s announcement that he’s running for president, Jeb declared that, “The barriers right now on people rising up is the great challenge of our time” and that “my core beliefs start with the premise that the most vulnerable in our society should be in the front of the line and not the back.” Sound familiar? It should. It mimics George W. Bush’s presidential announcement, right down to the mangled prepositions. “I’ll tell you what’s on my heart,” George W. declared on June 12, 1999. “The purpose of prosperity is to leave no one out, to leave no one behind. I’m running because my party must match a conservative mind with a compassionate heart.” Sixteen years later, almost to the day, compassionate conservatism is back.
Let’s hope that this time, the press isn’t fooled.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/jeb-bush-george-w-bush-compassionate-conservatism/396017/