Thursday, August 27, 2015

Or Maybe He's Just A Fraud






On August 14 at the Wing Ding Dinner in Des Moines, Hillary Clinton declared "Don't let the circus distract you. If you look at their policies, most of the other candidates are just Trump without the pizzazz or the hair."

She was right about immigration, as the video below demonstrates, about abortion and a few other issues, but on at least one thing John Ellis Bush stands apart from the rest of the GOP presidential field: he shows evidence of being delusional.








When it was discovered earlier this year that he had listed himself as Hispanic on a 2009 voter registration application in Miami-Dade County, John Ellis Bush tweeted "My mistake! Don't think I've fooled anyone." His son, named John Ellis Bush Jr. (because dad is so immersed in Latino culture), agreed, tweeting "come on, dad, think you checked the wrong box."

Just this past Monday, upon being criticized for using the term "anchor baby," Bush maintained "My background, my life, the fact that I’m immersed in the immigrant experience — this is ludicrous for the Clinton campaign and others to suggest that somehow I’m using a derogatory term..."

The John Ellis Bush who is "immersed in the immigrant experience" was born in Midland, Texas, approximately 107 years after Texas was admitted to the Union. He is not a naturalized citizen; he was born in the actual United States of America.

Bush wasn't confused only for that moment in 2009. In November, 2013 he stated (video below)

I’m bicultural—maybe that’s more important than bilingual. For those who have those kinds of marriages, appreciating the culture of your spouse is the most powerful part of the relationship. Being able to share that culture and live in it has been one of the great joys of my life. We chose Miami to live because it is a bicultural city. It’s as American as any, but it has a flair to it that is related to this bicultural feeling. I wanted my children to grow up in a bicultural way.









Of course, John Ellis was being interviewed at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y, likely in front of an audience which would be much more amenable to someone bicultural than someone proud of a WASP background, whose family includes a governor, two US Senators, a Supreme Court Justice and two bad Presidents. and whose family tree "includes the Spencer family that produced Diana, Princess of Wales."

John Ellis Bush is married to the former Colomba Garnica Gallo, with whom he lives in a "classically inspired townhouse" bought for $1.3 million in 2008 in "the sumptuous Almeria Row development that has won numerous architectural awards."  But being married to a woman from Mexico, being bi-lingual, and having lived a few years in Venezuela does not make a Bush "immersed in the immigrant experience."  He is very knowledgeable about, and perhaps fond of, the immigrant experience. He is not immersed in it.

The immigrant lifestyle claimed by John Ellis Bush  has not, through PACs, SuperPacs, and his own effort, brought in $120.0 million to his campaign as of August 1, more than twice as much as raised by any of his rivals.  It is because he is a Bush, heir to an extraordinary business and political tradition of his white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant family.  His familial background is not something he emphasizes (except when convenient), nor need he.    The idea that he is some sort of super ethnic could be considered delusional. However, as a Bush, he less likely is delusional than singularly opportunistic.



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