Jeb Bush's Principled Positions on Immigration and Christianity

This weekend, the media has been touting the news that former Florida governor Jeb Bush would have authorized the 2003 invasion of Iraq, just as his brother and then-president George W. Bush did. Jeb told Fox News' Megyn Kelly in an interview aired today : “I would have [authorized the invasion], and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody. And so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got.” Bush, a likely although unannounced 2016 presidential candidate, noted that as a Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton voted in favor of the Iraq invasion - a decision she has since said was wrong. The mistakes, Bush argued on Fox, were in the decisions made later : “Once we invaded and took out Saddam Hussein, we didn’t focus on security first.” He said that his brother George W. Bush agrees that this was a blunder, "so just for the news flash to the world, if they’re trying to find places where there’s big space between me and my brother, this might not be one of those.” ~~~~~ This position statement was clearly not intended to woo Democrats, or even the half of Americans who now think the Iraq war was a waste of time. And, Jeb's comments came just days after he told a private group gathered to discuss US-Israel policy : “If you want to know who I listen to for advice, it’s him.” Jeb Bush said, according to four people who were present at the session with financiers in New York, that George W. Bush is his advisor on Israel relations. This means that the Bush brothers discuss the wider Middle East since Israel cannot be treated in a vacuum. Iraq, Israel and the Middle East are delicate areas for Jeb Bush. Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans now believe that the war that cost 4,500 American lives, was not worth it. It remains the most controversial element of George W. Bush's legacy. The first Iraq war waged by their father, former President George H.W. Bush, in 1991, prompted by Iraqi aggression in Kuwait, was more popular and lasted only months. For some time, Jeb Bush has avoided the subject of Iraq, saying only that he is fortunate to have both a father and a brother who have served in the Oval Office : “I recognize that as a result, my views will often be held up in comparison to theirs....But I am my own man.” ~~~~~ In the same Fox interview, Bush said he thinks he can convince the Republican base to accept his position on immigration -- and he's hitting hard on opponents who've changed their positions on the issue. Jeb told Megan Kelly : "I get a sense that a lot of people can be persuaded, to be honest with you," he said. Bush has consistently urged respect for undocumented immigrants and has said it should be easier for them to gain legal status. This puts Bush at real odds with the party's conservative base that opposes "amnesty" -- and particularly the executive actions President Obama has taken to protect from deportation immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, as well as the undocumented parents of US citizen children. But, Bush said he would repeal Obama's unilateral actions and pursue a more conservative policy. In his remarks, Jeb also took a shot at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker -- and probably at Senator Marco Rubio as well, although he named neither of them -- for changing positions on immigration. Walker used to support a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants, but has said he's changed his views -- recently calling for limits even on legal immigration. Jeb asked Kelly : "Do you want people to just bend with the wind, to mirror people's sentiment, whoever's in front of you? -- 'Oh yes, I used to be for that, but now I'm for this' -- is that the way we want to elect Presidents?" Bush's own life has given him a more nuanced view than much of the GOP party base and presidential field -- he lives in Miami, has a Mexican-born wife and has said his family speaks Spanish at home. And his brother, President George W. Bush, supported immigration reform when he was in the Oval Office. The other Florida GOP presidential candidate, Senator Rubio, whose parents immigrated from Cuba, also formerly supported efforts to make it easier for immigrants to attain legal status -- though he has since backed off that position as Republicans have become very critical of Obama's handling of the issue. As Republicans move more to the right on immigration issues, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has put herself as far to the left as possible, saying undocumented immigrants should be allowed to become US citizens and that she'd try to go further than Obama in using her executive authority to aid immigrants. ~~~~~ At the same time that he was again staking out his moderate position on immigration, Jeb Bush also attacked President Obama and his adminisrration for deriding Americans who hold religious beliefs, deploring the rise of “coercive federal power” under Obama that Bush said seeks to impose progressive dogma on the country’s faithful. Jeb said : "Somebody here is being small-minded and intolerant, and it sure isn't the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women who ask only to live and practice their faith." Bush was delivering the commencement address at Liberty University, the Christian college where Senator Ted Cruz announced his presidential bid two months ago. Bush said : "Federal authorities are demanding obedience, in complete disregard of religious conscience -- and in a free society, the answer is no." Bush was placing himself firmly alongside the GOP's powerful and deeply conservative evangelical wing. Jeb condemned federal judges for "mistaking themselves for elected legislators and imposing restrictions and rights that do not exist in the Constitution." In a reference to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic charity that fought to win an exemption to Obamacare's contraception mandate, he said, "you might even say it's a choice between the Little Sisters and Big Brother -- and I'm going with the Little Sisters." Bush added : "How strange, in our own time, to hear Christianity spoken of as some sort of backward and oppressive force. It is not only untrue, but it's also a little ungrateful, to dismiss the Christian faith as some obstacle to enlightened thought." Taking a shot at Obama's negative relationship with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is troubling to many conservatives, Bush demanded that the US defend persecuted Jews, as well as Christians : "Wherever Jews are subjected to the oldest bigotry, we reject those sins against our brothers and sisters -- and we defend them." Bush noted that if he were to again become an elected official, his Christian faith would be a force in his decision-making : “It can be a touchy subject, and I am asked sometimes whether I would ever allow my decisions in government to be influenced by my Christian faith,” he said. "When I hear this, I know what they want me to say. The simple and safe reply is, ‘No Never. Of course not.’ If the game is political correctness, that’s the answer that moves you to the next round.” But Bush called that flawed thinking : “The mistake is to confuse points of theology with moral principles that are knowable to reason as well as by faith,” he said. He deplored the “false narrative that casts religious Americans as intolerant scolds, running around trying to impose their views on everyone.” His speech, more than those given by any other political figure in the recent past, made a pointed and affirmative case for Christianity as a positive force for freedom and compassion. "There is," he said, “no more inclusive and joyful message.” Jeb Bush rejected the “hostile caricature” of Christians and seemed to ask the audience to treat him as an ambassador to skeptical outsiders who are misinformed about the faithful. ~~~~~ Dear readers, this weekend, Jeb Bush proved that he is not a "politician" in the usual sense. He refused to pander to the GOP core by sacrificing his deeply held convictions about immigration, and he clearly asked the GOP to enter into a dialogue with him to find common ground. This alone sets him apart from, and ethically above, every other GOP presidential candidate. Though a politically challenging position for Bush in GOP primary campaigns, a moderate immigration position would serve him well in the general election, as Hispanic Americans are the fastest growing voting group in the US. But, listening to Jeb Bush, one is compelled to believe that his immigration position rests on principle, not expediency. It may be a reflection of his religious beliefs. At Liberty Universiry Jeb Bush staked out a position that makes him a Christian standardbearer in a field of both Republicans and Democrats who hesitate to use the word Christian to describe themselves. If ever there were a time to speak up as Christians, it is now. Jeb Bush has made an eloquent and principled case for Christians to be proud of and follow.