Well , there goes the “smart Bush” theory…
“Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love.”
—-Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, in comments about illegal immigration delivered at an event the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library,.
The statement by Jeb Bush has its sunny side, I suppose: with any luck, it should ensure that we don’t have a Bush-Clinton contest in 2016. Maybe that was Jeb’s intent. Otherwise, his comments are irresponsible attacks on the rule of law, common sense, fairness and national sovereignty.
The whole, mush-headed, contradictory, absurd quote:
“There are means by which we can control our border better than we have. And there should be penalties for breaking the law.But the way I look at this — and I’m going to say this, and it’ll be on tape and so be it. The way I look at this is someone who comes to our country because they couldn’t come legally, they come to our country because their families — the dad who loved their children — was worried that their children didn’t have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love. It’s an act of commitment to your family. I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime that there should be a price paid, but it shouldn’t rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families.”
Seriously, Governor?
- Are all crimes that involve providing for family members “acts of love,” Governor? Insurance fraud? Drug-dealing? Extortion? Bank heists? Should murders that are motivated love be less than felonies?
- What are your views on the obligation not to have children that you can’t provide for without breaking laws? What are your views on the obligations of citizens to reform their own country so that it has laws and policies that allow citizens to make a decent living?
- How do you reconcile the statements that we should control our borders and have penalties for breaking laws with your celebration of the ethics of those who break the law by crossing borders?
- Are we going to apply a “love test” as part of enforcement? How do you propose doing that?
- Are you aware that in order to have effective law enforcement, the penalties for breaking laws must be seen as sufficiently severe that the benefits of violating them are perceived as not worth the cost? How do you propose treating illegal immigration as less than a felony while simultaneously controlling the border “better”?
- Did you think through the logic of this statement at all? Do you comprehend how irresponsible and damaging such nonsense is coming from anyone taken seriously as a leader, thinker, and statesman?
For some reason, illegal immigration, more than any other issue—well, maybe illegal drug enforcement too—-converts otherwise intelligent, rational policymakers into intellectually sloppy, sentimental, irresponsible fools.
Ethics Alarms 
Thankfully, this should all but end any notion that the guy will be the nominee…
I mean, I get that compromise is needed on immigration, but this seems a bit… Well, a bit Leftist.
As I said elsewhere, if you put a gun to my head and told me I had to vote for either Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton, I would steal the gun away from you and shoot myself in the head.
We already have a separate class of offenses in “hate crimes”; why not “love crimes”?
You may be sorry you proposed that—a potentially viral bad idea.
Maybe I missed the boat here, but was Jeb really ever a serious contender? I mean, I’ve heard Christie’s name, and Cruz, and Paul, but Bush Jr. Jr.? I know it’s a long way to the nominations, but aside from name recognition, is Jeb well enough knownn to make a go of it?
Who knows? There have been rumblings. At this point in 2006, nobody knew who Barack Obama was.
And we’re still not sure!
There exists a group that are actually pushing him as a candidate.
While these are not people I would call “serious people”, they are not jokes. Apparently. For reasons that surpass all rational attempts at understanding.
I was under the impression that crossing the border (into this country) was a misdemeanor. Not so? If it is, are there any other countries in which it is? Rather than a shooting offense, I mean.
It’s currently a misdemeanor with an unusually tough punishment, deportation. If the punishment isn’t enforced, then it’s an absurdly insufficient misdemeanor. the point is, it needs to be treated as a felony going forward, since it is obviously a serious crime.
“This album is dedicated…to all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustling in front of, that called the police on me, when I was just tryin to make some money to feed my daughter…”
The Notorious BIG and Jeb Bush are in total agreement on this!
I really do feel for those trying to be with their families, or even those trying to come here to make money for families back home. Their situation is terrible, but at what point did we come to the conclusion that everyone we felt bad for either needed a free pass on breaking the rules, or for the rules to be bent over backward to accomodate them?
It is, quite simply, a creeping crazy idea that took hold thanks to thick heads in the media, low-information voters, corruption and dishonesty of both sides of the aisle (and the private sector), and a gradual increase in a demographic group that is picking the welfare of its relatives over that of its adopted nation. In my view, the decision that the US will thrive with more legal addictive recreational drugs is equally nuts, but we’re headed there, too.
This is a sort of Jean Val Jean ethics problem. (I thought I read it here, but maybe it was somewhere else. I can’t find it in a very cursory search.) Yes, he stole to feed his family, but the ethics part is in knowing it was a crime and being prepared to pay the price of the crime because he didn’t have the price of the bread.
This works if the crime doesn’t cause harm to another person.
BTW — I’ve had Les Mis in my head all day because of your comment. Thanks!
Could have been much worse.
Oh, thanks Jeb. Now I understand why Putin annexed the Crimea: Love.
Bravo.
Weasel alert! I think perhaps Jeb Bush is taking estrogen and he’s gotten very, very confused.
Wait—estrogen turns you into a weasel? That just can’t be right. No, I think Jeb was listening to a Bread album, read some Rod McKuen, caught some Care Bears on TV, and finished up with Barney…AND the listened to some of Harry Reid’s speeches about “The Dream Act.”
Plus he wants the Hispanic vote if he runs. Actually, that alone is enough to turn him into a weasel.
Points all well taken. Well, first we had Teddy Kennedy and now we have Jeb Bush. Btw, good luck with the Hispanic vote Jeb. I’m sure many of them will be fooled by you.
It would be refreshing to have honesty instead of this constant battle of the reason that either Rep. and/or Dem. want the large population of illegals to receive amnesty. It is all about the vote and nothing to do with what is correct and/or safe guards the U.S. in so many areas from financial and etc.
When you look at Mexico you quickly learn that this is not a poor nation, it is a nation that the largest percentage of Mexicans are either Middle Class, Upper Middle Class and/or Wealthy. Mexico is rich in natural minerals and they are not lacking for oil. Mexico is rated the #2 after the U.S. for obese people.. so that sure does not go along with reasoning of starving people.
We send billions of dollars to Mexico yearly (U.S.Taxpayer Monies) and there are not safe guards for the monies and/or what the monies is used for and/or how. No one over sees any of the monies that we give willing to the U.N. and/or other countries..
Mexico has found a money cow and that is the U.S.
Mexico does not want and will not take care of their own citizens..they are making to much monies the other way.
Mexico does not want the uneducated but instead, because of large increase in businesses relocating to Mexico, Mexico has the common sense not to accept uneducated individuals where as the U.S. does .
There is only so much the U.S.citizen can support.
What a shame we have a Congress/Government that has no common sense and no loyalty to its own citizens.
Legalizing illegals from Mexico is something the Bush family put forward and could not accomplish. The only difference, this administration figured out how to fast track the amnesty. The Bush Administration is not much different from current one. The current one is only faster at accomplishing the death spiral of the U.S. After all the elder Bush spoke of he wanted NEW WORLD ORDER and so this president is doing something that his own son could not accomplish in his presidency.