Don Shay

June 17, 2015

(ANTIMEDIA) Jeb Bush, the son of former president George H.W. Bush and brother of George W. Bush, announced his White House bid today. He coupled it with the blanket statement, “America Deserves Better.”

Jeb has feebly attempted to discredit an argument that even the most politically uninformed Americans will immediately bring up—that he is the brother of one of the most unpopular presidents this nation has ever had, a man who arguably drove this country to not only be trillions in debt but who solidified the United States’ reputation as a formidable, international aggressor.

Further, many would, by extension, be skeptical of his merit running on the backbone of the “Bush” family name. To combat these arguments, he stated:

“Not a one of us deserves the job by right of résumé, party, seniority, family or family narrative,” he told a crowd of 3,000 supporters in a community college’s gymnasium. “It’s nobody’s turn. It’s everybody’s test.”

This statement is an attempt to convince people that his strength isn’t derived from nepotism, but his own individual merit and skills that deem him fit to run for president.

The fact of the matter is that he has raised the most campaign money so far because corporate lobbyists wholeheartedly trust him to cater to their whims.

It is also axiomatic that he would not have a shot at the presidency without the strength of his family name, the wealth backing it, and his father’s relative popularity.

Prior to today, he also stated that he is not like his brother and father. He said he has his own views.

As he claimed about his family in a speech,

“I recognize…my views will often be held up in comparison to theirs’ – sometimes in contrast to theirs’. I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make. But I am my own man – and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences.”

First, let’s assume that he isn’t a politician and actually deserves the benefit of the doubt.

To see how fundamentally he deviates from the policies of his brother, let’s examine his positions and statements:

His foreign policy advisor is Paul Wolfowitz same as his brother’s. This man is infamous for producing the “Wolfowitz Doctrine,” a detailed plan that outlined neoconservatives vision of the United States: for global dominance that included a plan to invade Iraq. Curiously, this plan was devised before 9/11. Jeb Bush also wholeheartedly approved of this plan, which was put into action by his brother. In accordance with the neoconservative stance, Jeb says he wants to push for even more military spending. He said:

”Having a military that is equal to any threat … makes it less likely that we will need to put our men and women in uniform in harm’s way,” Bush plans to tell attendees. He added that he believes “fundamentally, that weakness invites war… and strength encourages peace.”

Claiming that the U.S., which is already the top defense spender by far, needs to increase its arsenal and spend billions more for peace is a statement that one would expect in a George Orwell book. It is also very similar to the rhetoric George W. Bush used when he exponentially increased the U.S.’s military budget post 9/11.

When Fox news pundit Megyn Kelly asked Jeb about whether he would have invaded Iraq, arguably his brother’s greatest blunder, he stated that he would have backed the invasion “just like Hillary Clinton did.”

The most telling statement he has made was about Obama’s presidency.

On the issue of government surveillance, he stated:

“I would say the best part of the Obama administration would be his continuance of the protections of the homeland using, you know, the big metadata programs, the NSA being enhanced,” he stated on the Michael Medved radio show on Tuesday. “Even though he never defends it, even though he never openly admits it, there has been a continuation of a very important service, which is the first obligation I think of our national government is to keep us safe.”

To contend that Jeb Bush could be a positive change to the already decrepit political establishment is to be ignorant of history. It is also ludicrous to believe Jeb when he claims he is somehow different from his brother. Anyone who examines his positions and the rhetoric used to justify them will see that he is a spitting image of George W. Bush.

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