"Sane" Bush brother Jeb is in hot water for his insane 1994 anti-gay rant that he published as an editorial in the Miami Herald. In his first, unsuccessful bid for the Florida governorship, Jeb responded to accusations that he was homophobic with the rich-guy version of the gay friend rationalization:
I have employed homosexuals and continue to do so. Therefore, I take vigorous exception to your characterization of me as a bigot.
If that wasn't convincing, Jeb gets to the heart of the matter. He's not going to be everyone's governor:
The governor — and the government — do not defend the conduct of every Floridian with equal verve and enthusiasm. Polluters, pedophiles, pornographers, drunk drivers, and developers without proper permits receive — and deserve — precious little representation or defense from their governor.
Many people in the 90s were not particularly enlightened when it came to "homosexuals," but drawing a parallel between gay people and drunk drivers was a fringe position even then. But what's particularly strange about the editorial is the resentment that simmers just below the surface:
We have enough special categories, enough victims, without creating even more.
It's that line that hints at a worldview that goes beyond a few homophobic statements and should trouble voters today.
Buzzfeed points out that this rhetoric is similar to a passage from Bush's 1995 book, Profiles in Character, in which he wrote that the “gay rights movement,” the “feminist movement,” and the “black empowerment movement” were all “modern victim movements.” He also lashed out at a lesbian couple during the campaign, once again reiterating that "I don't believe we need to create another category of victims."
One group that Jeb did see as victims who needed their own protections were parents who spank their kids, for whom he supported a "Spanker's Bill of Rights."
Sensing that 2016 voters will not want to have a beer with the angry man in the corner raving about homosexuals and modern victim movements, Team Jeb is etch-a-sketching their man's outlook on LGBT issues (who knows about women's equality or "black empowerment"). Now, he respects same-sex couples while still wanting to deny them their rights.
Slate's LGBTQ editor believes that Buzzfeed republishing the editorial was "peculiar and misguided." He writes, "What matters is that people evolve over time."
Evolving on gay marriage is one thing. Going from viewing gay people as scum not worth representing to a figure trying to make his party less "anti-gay"? This gay person will never buy it. The country will surely remember that George W. Bush rode his "compassionate conservative" facade to the White House, then didn't hesitate to lie us into war or build the Guantanamo torture center.
At any rate, Jeb's Wall Street boosters better hope he can articulate his "evolution" more successfully than Hillary Clinton.