What happened in SC this week to the Bush dynasty couldn’t have been written any better by a novelist. I don’t just mean Trump’s 33% vote count to Jeb’s pathetic 8%. I don’t even mean that Jeb dropped out of the race putting an end to his Presidential hopes and the hopes of all other Bush family members.
Not just that. What I mean is that Donald Trump destroyed their legacy and laid waste to carefully constructed wall of denial in republican circles about how bad GW Bush was as a president. In the SC debate, the republican debate, Donald Trump said the following about the GW Bush Legacy:
- The Iraq war was a huge mistake, perhaps the biggest ever in the USA and perhaps ever anywhere
- there were no weapons of mass destruction
- Bush lied to get us into the war (which he later walked back, just a little)
- There wouldn’t be so many veterans needing care if they had never made the mistake of going into Iraq
- 9/11 happened on GW Bush’s watch and so, perhaps, just perhaps, he didn’t do such a good job of keeping us safe
- GW Bush’s mistakes led to ISIS and Al Quaeda in Iraq where they had no presence there before
This was all said in front of a Republican audience, in a debate televised to Republicans. Trump did an epic takedown of the Bush family because he needed to win in SC, and supposedly GW Bush still enjoyed 80% popularity among SC republicans. GW Bush gave a little speech in SC to help his brother, the crowd was fairly small numbering only around two thousand people. Trump made fun of Jeb bringing in his Mommy to help him. And, there were reports that when Trump said those things at the debate that old ‘poppy’ Bush was at home yelling at the tv as Trump spoke the truth.
Thank God a Republican finally told the truth to Republicans. Trump broke a carefully crafted, though rickety, wall of lies constructed by the right wing media. Trump said things which polite and connected republicans did dare not say. And, thankfully, after saying these things, Trump found some agreement because he still won the primary.
And so, on primary night, it became obvious that if you could say these things to Republicans and win a primary, the Bush brand is just too toxic because some lies just simply can not hold up. It didn’t help that Jeb was a particularly poor candidate, but Trump was just a wrecking ball which could not be stopped.
Poor Jeb had to withdraw. Close to $200 million donor money down a rat hole. Years of planning came to nothing. The hopes of the Bush family were dashed in a dramatic climax over one short week. Without Jeb’s potential as a future president, perhaps the years of influence peddling may be coming to an end. And poppy lived to realize the family name is ruined.
No one could have written it better than this, except for, you know, if GW Bush had never been President.