Jeb Bush – Hispanic
[guest post by Dana]
This is making the rounds, and depending on how you feel about Jeb Bush, it may or may not cause you to bat an eye:
There is little doubt that Jeb Bush possesses strong credentials for appealing to Hispanic voters.
He speaks fluent Spanish. His wife, Columba, was born in Mexico. For two years in his 20s, he lived in Venezuela, immersing himself in the country’s culture. He was born in Texas and is a former governor of Florida, two states with large Hispanic populations.
But on one occasion, it appears, Mr. Bush may have become a bit carried away: He listed himself as Hispanic on a 2009 voter-registration application in Miami-Dade County.
Of course, an immediate comparison was made between Señor Bush and that of Elizabeth Warren conveniently identifying as Native American during a time when top schools were desperately trying to hire minorities and diversity was all the rage. Except that while Warren clearly had much to gain from her Native American claims, Bush doesn’t appear to have had anything to gain from his claim of being Hispanic.
For his part, Bush admitted the mistake and even joked about it:
My mistake! Don’t think I’ve fooled anyone! RT @JebBushJr LOL – come on dad, think you checked the wrong box #HonoraryLatino
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) April 6, 2015
Further, Kathryn Jean Lopez spoke with Bush today:
“I have no clue what happened,” he says. “I appreciate the New York Times using all these valuable resources to point out the obvious: I am not Hispanic. Wow. That’s a Pultizer Prize–winning fact, I guess.” The former governor of Florida again added: “I have no clue how that happened . . .”
In a similar spirit, he adds on the phone today, “I guess . . . there wasn’t a little box that said WASP?” Of course, that wouldn’t quite work either, he says, since he converted to Catholicism two decades ago. “It seems pretty trivial to me,” he says.
Asked about how Hispanic culture has been a part of his life, he explains: “My wife is from Mexico. We live in Miami. I grew up in Texas. We lived in Venezuela — my two oldest children were a baby and a toddler at the time.” Honorary Latino or not, he says, “Hispanic culture has been an important part of my life.”
While some are claiming it’s possible he so identifies with Hispanics, he actually views himself as one, others are looking at it in a broader sense:
If he’d checked “Asian,” I could believe it was an error, but this was no error; it’s just another manifestation (maybe even subconscious) of his rejection of his own background and embrace of a different one. It’s his way of subscribing to the tribalism that Jay notes today has replaced color-blindness and assimilationism (on the post-American right as well as on the left).
Jeb’s fakery suggests why we should abolish government racial and ethnic categories, building a wall of separation, as it were, between race and state, as we do between church and state. No one would think of asking your religion on a voter-registration form or job application — in fact, it’s illegal. So should it be for other attributes that are irrelevant to the content of your character — hair color, say, or handedness or what country your grandparents came from.
(Bush is currently polling second at 17% to Scott Walker’s 20%.)
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (86e864) — 4/6/2015 @ 9:27 pmAs far as I’m aware it’s not even possible to say Bush was wrong to check the Hispanic box. What is a Hispanic? It’s not a Spaniard; you could be born and raised in Spain and you’re white. It’s whoever assimilated into the culture of the countries south of our border.
I’ve met red headed, fair skinned, blue eyed Mexicans. Instead of emigrating to the US, when their families left Ireland they went to Mexico. They can check off the Hispanic block when they vote in the US. Why not Jeb Bush?
Steve57 (cd6f9a) — 4/6/2015 @ 9:39 pmFlorida, eh?
seeRpea (81ed29) — 4/6/2015 @ 9:43 pmWonder what the layout of the boxes were.
for a while, MSM referred to Hispanic as a ‘race’. Which confused the heck the out of me when I looked around me and saw photos of the various neighborhoods in Miami and Houston.
Finally , they stopped but for some reason when cable news networks started up they again would refer to “Hispanic race”. When the Census came out in 2000 and the forms stated that Hispanic was not a race they put up subtitles saying Hispanic wasn’t really a race but kept vocally using it as such. Have no idea how tv deals with the term now, but it is not a new thing to call Hispanic a “race”.
seeRpea (81ed29) — 4/6/2015 @ 9:50 pmOther than to a simple mind, there is no substantive comparison to Sen Lieawatha. She gained something specific from her lie
JD (962b99) — 4/6/2015 @ 10:01 pmDon’t sweat it. Islam is now a race.
It boggles the mind that somebody could seriously believe that, but there are lots of people who do.
Steve57 (cd6f9a) — 4/6/2015 @ 10:02 pmAlmost all of Jeb Bush’s poll numbers come from one thing — name recognition.
That same name recognition that gives him 17% in the poll you link, Dana, also gives him spectacularly “high negatives” — including, unfortunately for him, among both Republicans who aren’t nostalgic for Dubya and conservatives who doubt Jeb’s conservatism.
He was on the sidelines for both McCain’s and Romney’s campaigns. He’s been out of electoral politics for a long time. He’s never been in politics on a national level except as the son and brother of former presidents (which cuts mostly against him, see above).
I can’t see him becoming the GOP nominee. (But then I said that about McCain in 2008 as well.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/6/2015 @ 10:06 pmNow Jeb’s son, George P. Bush, does have a future in the national GOP. But it’s … in the future.
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/6/2015 @ 10:08 pmIsn’t it illegal for him to have done that?
If so, I hope he is charged and fined for it.
Just for the Lulz.
jakee308 (49ccc6) — 4/7/2015 @ 12:10 amHell, I usually mark those boxes at random. I ran across a “decline to state” gender box on a form today. I expect that will be more confusing in the future.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 4/7/2015 @ 12:41 amJeb’s sloppy
it’s cause of all the entitlement he got all up in his head
happyfeet (831175) — 4/7/2015 @ 12:53 amAnd democrats say their is no voter fraud! Nothing to gain? How about the hispanic vote! That is how dubya won the 2004 election when kerry and the unions were afraid of immigration. Had dubya got the same % of hispanic vote as self deportation mitt romney they would be calling him president kerry! Get the hispanic vote win don’t get it lose ask mccain and romney about that!
warhoop warren (8ea1de) — 4/7/2015 @ 12:57 amJeb is going to surprise a few people – it will be interesting to see several excellent candidates debating each other
EPWJ (8f5c4e) — 4/7/2015 @ 2:02 amMove to Mexico and fix that country and leave ours alone, señor jebby.
mg (31009b) — 4/7/2015 @ 3:42 amTake the rest of the entitled booshes with you.
jeb hedged funded it up while poor sad america was being viciously obamaraped for years and years and years and years
now he shows up with blankets and cocoa
well me i say no thank you
happyfeet (831175) — 4/7/2015 @ 3:48 amI don’t like JEB but how come we can find his voter registration card but not BOs birth cert?
sdharms (71647c) — 4/7/2015 @ 3:49 am“Wonder what the layout of the boxes were.”
pst314 (ae6bd1) — 4/7/2015 @ 4:40 amFollow that first link for a photo.
The layout was box, name, box, name, box, name, etc., all on one row.
It seems very easy to make that sort of careless mistake. It’s not like we have any other evidence (in contrast to Elizabeth Warren or Ward Churchill) that he was actually trying to deceive.
Just yesterday I screwed up a government form due to haste and inattention, but when I went back to the clerk she said don’t worry, that’s not an error that matters.
Meanwhile, as someone noted, the New York Times has still made no effort to dig into Obama’s college years.
I’ve never met a Bush I didn’t like. And I’ve never met one I wanted to vote for. 41 and 43 I met and they were very fine gentlemen. But they’re liberals. That said Jeb is correct. With all the different ( or is it diverse?) categories for race I’m personally offended they don’t have WASP. I’m also offended they don’t have Portuguese for The proud of his heritage Dana! Why are we discriminated against?
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 4/7/2015 @ 5:17 amWe adopted our children from Guatemala. I wrote in American in the 2010 census form but I’ve checked all sorts of boxes for them in various school, scouting and medical forms; white, hispanic, other. But on my own forms it’s either been the box for white/caucasian or the none of your business box. But I can easily see how I could make the same mistake as Jeb, especially since ethnic identity seems so important to him.
rfy (badb47) — 4/7/2015 @ 6:05 amIs he any worse than being trans?
AZ Bob (34bb80) — 4/7/2015 @ 6:38 amMSM being MFM. There’s lots of reasons why Jeb should not be the GOP’s candidate, but this is total BS.
nk (dbc370) — 4/7/2015 @ 6:50 amHaving been born in the USA, I hereby classify myself as a “Native American”…
On another note, can a white South African who moves to the US and becomes a citizen be referred to as an “African American”?
Horatio (26c000) — 4/7/2015 @ 7:24 amCan’t you be whatever you want to be?
AZ Bob (34bb80) — 4/7/2015 @ 7:29 amSince the science is settled that hominids originated in Africa, aren’t we all African-Americans?
nk (dbc370) — 4/7/2015 @ 7:31 amMr. Governor Scott Walker also speaks fluent Spanish, as well as Mandarin, Portugese, French, and a smattering of Hebrew. His wife, Consuela Maria Dulce Serafina Lopez-Walker, was born in Paraguay. For several years in his 20s, he lived in Brazil, Bolivia, Tanzania and Taiwan, immersing himself in the cultures of these countries. Hispanics, asians, brazil people, and various and sundry other ethnicities admire and respect him for his self-effacing charm and unsurpassed multicultural savvy.
happyfeet (a037ad) — 4/7/2015 @ 7:49 am“Polling”? Lol….if the big money boys decide that Bush should be the candidate, Bush will be the candidate.
You peons delude yourselves if you think your views matter. But keep up the temper tantrums, that probably is the best way to get some recognition, since your ideology is based on an infantile understanding of the world.
Give money to Cruz!!!
Missile (3f8f5f) — 4/7/2015 @ 8:26 amUSDA Choice Dork, expired.
DNF (208255) — 4/7/2015 @ 10:21 amHe should have blamed a hanging chad and demanded a recount.
Beasts of England (ef9c55) — 4/7/2015 @ 1:31 pmThen I’m a Native African American and a lesbian trapped in a man’s body…That’s got to be worth an extra 400 points in the affirmative action game
Horatio (26c000) — 4/7/2015 @ 7:43 pm