By Stephen Goldstein
It’s 2016. Even before all of the just-cast votes have been officially tallied, pundits are predicting who will run for president — among them, Jeb Bush, of course.
But, since Americans have the historical perspective of fruit flies, it’s time to take a walk down memory lane and remind ourselves that where there’s a Bush, there’s a debacle — too often with Florida at the center of it and the rest of the nation wondering what’s wrong with us.
I wish the nightmares could be wiped away with the shake of an Etch A Sketch. But unfortunately life doesn’t follow art. Instead, the Bush Dynasty continues relentlessly to pursue its agenda of imposing its self-righteous will on the rest of a nation. And what’s wrong with “us” is that too many of us are slow to connect the dots.
Past Bush Debacle One: In 2000, the eyes of the world were on Florida during the torturous recount of presidential votes. That bruising fiasco featured George W. Bush in the foreground and Jeb Bush in the background, pulling the strings of then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
In its politically tainted decisions in Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court lost all credibility, from which it has never recovered. And the course of history was changed for the worse. George W. entangled us in a war in Iraq and put John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court, setting in motion some of the worst decisions it has ever made. Al Gore wouldn’t have done any of that.
Past Bush Debacle Two: From 2003 to 2005, the brothers Bush muscled the power of the state into a devastating family matter. The heart-wrenching case of the brain-dead Terri Schiavo kept alive on a feeding tube was turned into political theater and posturing. An aide’s legal memo written to then-Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez even suggested that the case would resonate with the GOP’s political base.
Who can forget the legal appeals and stays, press conferences and pronouncements, an extraordinary weekend session of Congress, George W.’s interrupting his vacation to return to Washington to sign a misguided bill at 1 a.m. transferring jurisdiction of the Schiavo case to federal courts? Jeb Bush orchestrated the torturous affair. Ultimately, it rightly backfired on him, but it divided the country and destroyed a family in the process.
Past Bush Debacle Three: During a 2005 photo-op with a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association by his side, the then-governor signed (what is commonly referred to as) the “Stand Your Ground” law. It gives Floridians who feel threatened the right to shoot to kill anyone anywhere — and ask questions later.
Critics predicted that it would lead to disastrous consequences. Former Miami Police Chief John Timoney has said, “Whether it’s trick-or-treaters or kids playing in the yard of someone who doesn’t want them there or some drunk guy stumbling into the wrong house[,] you’re encouraging people to possibly use deadly physical force where it shouldn’t be used.”
If only Jeb had listened to the warnings and had stood up to the NRA, any number of abuses of the law, not to mention deaths, could have been avoided.
Future Bush Debacles: What disasters could loom from the policies of The House of Bush if Jeb were to become president? Lives destroyed because of ill-advised Medicaid reforms? A building collapsed because a charter school conglomerate built a facility on the cheap? Floridians devastated by a hurricane because budget cuts have dismantled emergency services? A U.S Supreme Court packed with radical, right-wing extremists?
I don’t have a crystal ball to predict what all of the next debacles might be — or an Etch A Sketch to make them go away.
I just hope against hope that they never happen, and fear that they might, for, if you’re a Bush, you count on people forgetting, with good reason.
Stephen L. Goldstein is the author of “The Dictionary of American Political Bullshit” and “Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned.” He lives in Fort Lauderdale.
John Smallberries says
Eh, with florida in the mix it’s more like the united states of alzheimer’s.
wavettore says
It’s already a done deal.
The next president will complete the job that only Jeb Bush can do.
No need for him to be in the spotlight or do much campaigning when he knows he can use the same Deception that worked so well for his father and for his brother. After 9/11 they know they can do anything and get away with it. From the JFK assassination until 9/11 one hidden hand from Texas is ruling not only in this Country and this next US elections will make it official.
Humanity is again being played by the Beast.
Perhaps a few will still remember when George W. Bush told the terrorized US citizens to seal their windows with duct tape to protect from an imminent chemical attack. An irony like this could tell the story. The next day on the shelves of the stores all over the US there was no more duct tape for sale.
All that is happening in our days is the prelude to enormous changes but even before discussing in regard of the possible remedy one must be clear about how we came to this point recognizing both physiognomy and origin of the threat.
Since George H. Bush was CIA director, the US secret State agencies had played a double role to finally get to where we are today when every person is constantly monitored by NSA and other agencies not to report the information to the US Government but to feed with all data the embryo of a new superpower still kept hidden.
In brief, here is how it came to possess all means and to know everything of everyone.
In 1988 the ex CIA director was elected president although this was a US president like no other. His attention quickly turned to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait from where he personally benefited immensely in exchange for the protection of those tyrants and their oil while in the United States instead the president observed his son, Neil, to be the author of the largest robbery of its time, the “Savings and Loans” scandal. After a few years, the next largest robbery in history was Enron that financed the electoral campaign for his other son, George. Once he also became president, the son plotted the most infamous attack on US soil, 9/11, to begin the widest monitoring program ever conceived and to consolidate for 8 years the interest of one family above all. The day before 9/11 the Bush administration announced 2.3 Trillion dollars missing from the US State Department and we have not heard anything about it ever since. That is the latest largest robbery of all time.
In our days, a group of Zionists, like a hidden parallel government, with George Bush still today at the head of secret services in the US, UK and Israel, is the destabilizing force behind most terror events and with classified information at disposal and a private army is plotting what now would seem unthinkable to many. The spokesman for this group in the US Congress is John Mc Cain who reports the given orders weighing on the US administration.
A World War and chaos everywhere have already been planned so that desperate people will soon invoke a New World Order without even knowing what that is.
When Jeb Bush will be the US president, the next War will be inevitable and also come by surprise.
There is one single Solution
Tom Jacks says
Sounds to me like you have a personal problem with the Bush family. Jealousy looks really ugly on you Mr. Goldstein. Oh and get over the 2000 election, what is in the past is past. Al ( I invented the internet ) Gore would have been as bad of a President as John (global warming is more of a threat than Islamic extremism ) Kerry is a Secretary of State, who by the way is as pathetic as Hillary ( I’m poor because I only get 250,000 per speech to donate to the Clinton foundation so I can then take the money back tax free ) Clinton. Hypocrisy, they name is the Democratic Party.
Robert L. says
I see the Democrat machine is already working (like this website), trying to knock down the GOP potential candidates.
bill says
Dont want Jeb as my first choice but id take him and any “debacle” over another Clinton and their issues.
confidential says
After these mid terms results …nothing would surprise me anymore! For worst the best candidate Dems have is Hillary? We need Elizabeth Warren actually a PHD in Economy to fix this country financial fall out!
Tom Jacks says
Actually Elisabeth Warren graduated from The University of Houston with a degree in speech pathology and radiology. Then she earned her Jurist Doctor from Rutgers School of Law-Newark. Now where in her education did she earn a PHD in economics.
confidential says
Unfortunately to our fate, much of what Wavettore writes a above rings loud bells and looks, walks and sounds like near future and pathetic reality!
Spanky says
Ross Perot………We need graphs and plenty of them !!!
Dan M says
We’ll most likely get either another Clinton or Bush so hurrah for family dynasties.