Donald Trump pierces Jeb Bush's disguise ... by gimleteye

The Donald

For eight years as governor, Jeb Bush's political character was barely challenged by the mainstream media.

In the media's light, he was a "policy wonk", and his impatience the sign of a man on the move. Deference was paid to the son and the brother of two presidents. But Jeb's dismissiveness of critics was not a secondary character trait. His thin-skinned brittleness papered over dead-certainty that what he and his inner circle decided was "right". During Jeb Bush's terms, the law of predetermined outcomes was buffed to high polish. It followed that dissenters would be banished.

This point of view about Jeb may be news to many, because the press failed to report it. Now that Donald Trump is exposing Jeb's vulnerabilities, other former Republican leaders are venturing forward to affirm what they were reticent to share while Jeb was in power in Florida.

Still, a disinformation campaign by the Bush camp continues.

In the New York Times:

Emphasizing bluster over ideas, Mr. Trump has turned the campaign into a tabloid-style clash of personalities, heavy on provocation and insults. What little policy that has been discussed mostly revolves around Mr. Trump’s appeals to anxious white conservatives: stoking fears about immigrants, gang members and foreign countries that, in his telling, are eclipsing the United States.

It is a race, in other words, that embodies what Mr. Bush likes least about politics.

Mr. Bush is at his most animated discussing policy. And the only thing he may be more passionate about than issues is his conviction that the Republicans must become an inclusive, big-hearted party that appeals to people’s hopes rather than their resentments.

“It’s got to be difficult,” said John McKager Stipanovich, a veteran Florida lobbyist who has known Mr. Bush for more than 30 years. “Donald Trump epitomizes everything that Jeb has spent his political career trying to prevent the Republican Party from becoming.”

True, Bush may be most animated discussing policy, but the New York Times does a disservice by sliding past his record of governance. That record is in contradiction of the statement that Bush bears "conviction that the Republicans must become an inclusive, big-hearted party that appeals to people's hopes rather than their resentments."

In fact, while he was governor, Jeb Bush ran an executive office that was so tight, so shielded from diversity and diverse opinions on policy, that Tallahassee turned into a castle with a deep moat surrounded by high, smooth granite walls. The notion that Jeb now supports a "big tent" filled with joyous voices is, in a word, ludicrous.

In Jeb Bush's world, dissent equals disloyalty, disloyalty equals excommunication. That is the bottom line in a recent report by Adam Smith in the Tampa Bay Times.

So, when Mac Stipanovich says, "Donald Trump epitomizes everything that Jeb has spent his political career trying to prevent the Republican Party from becoming", the New York Times needs to ask: where is the truth in that? Where is the evidence?

Here is what Mac Stipanovich, Karl Rove and other Bush advisors ought to consider: by playing the fears, resentments and anxieties of a Republican base while operating a government-in-the-shadows on behalf of special interests -- Jeb Bush created exactly the conditions for a Donald Trump to thrive.