Jeb! Bush is opposed to free public higher education because it represents the idea that “the government can just take care of us” blah blah blah usual Republican culture of dependency rhetoric. But then, speaking at a South Carolina campaign event, Bush brought a more unusual explanation:
“It’s like the crabs in the, you know, whatever —the crabs in the boiling water,” Mr. Bush tried.
“Frogs,” an audience member shouted out, helpfully.
“The frogs,” Mr. Bush continued. “You think it’s warm, and it feels pretty good and then it feels like you’re in a whirlpool—you know, a Jacuzzi or something.”
He concluded with a morbid twist: “And then you’re dead. That’s how this works.”
Yes, we let the government “take care of us” by paying for a level of education that is, today, as crucial for entry into the middle class as a high school education was at the time the government began “taking care of us” by paying for free universal public high school … AND THEN WE’RE DEAD. Like the crabs and the frogs in the boiling Jacuzzi just waiting to be eaten.