Why Jeb Bush once thought it was cool to shame single moms

There's something very telling about focusing on sexual sin, and not, say, petty theft

Jeb Bush
(Image credit: Getty Images)

For presidential candidates, 'tis the season of the oppo dump. Or perhaps the season of the background check, as campaigns feed unpleasant information about their opponents to reporters, and reporters take their own initiative to fill out a picture of who these candidates really are. Inevitably, the candidates wind up having to defend things they said or did in years past that from today's standpoint seem anachronistic or even appalling.

So it was with Jeb Bush, who turns out to have written a 1995 book called Profiles In Character that lamented the decline of public shaming as a tool of policymaking. While kids today have children out of wedlock because they don't fear society's scorn, he wrote, "Infamous shotgun weddings and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter are reminders that public condemnation of irresponsible sexual behavior has strong historical roots." That floozy Hester Prynne had it coming.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.