Jeb Bush is out. But Marco Rubio is the real Bush in the 2016 race.
And that's not a good thing for the Florida senator
Jeb! is no more.
Of course, Jeb Bush the man lingers on, even after he put his massively disappointing and weirdly punctuated presidential campaign out of its misery after finishing sixth in Iowa, fourth in New Hampshire, and fourth in South Carolina. But after his shellacking in the 2016 race, few will care about Jeb — or the Bushes. Politically, he is a spent force. Through his fruitlessly awkward and then vindictively prideful thrashing, his campaign, and the Right to Rise spending operation associated with it, managed to wipe out Jeb's considerable influence within Republican circles and beyond.
The damage does not end there. Philosophically, Jeb Bush reminded Republicans of the one thing they had most hoped to forget: Bushism is a problem.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
George W. Bush, hauled away from his cherished peace and quiet and painting, came to South Carolina to give his brother’s White House dream a decent burial. But neither Jeb nor Dubya can put the skeletons of the latter’s two terms back into the ground where the former haplessly disinterred them. As Donald Trump realized, many Republican voters are ready for someone — anyone — to seize upon the humiliations of the Bush years, drag them into the light, name and shame them, and demand as clean of a break as possible.
That is why Jeb lost South Carolina; that is why his campaign is finished; that is why Trump romped to another victory; and that — on closer inspection, the real story of the night — is why Marco Rubio’s dream of beating Ted Cruz for second place should turn into a nightmare.
For with Bush out, it is clearer than ever that Rubio is the real Bush in the race. Having already betrayed Jeb, he is now well on his way to shivving George P. Bush, the actual Latino heir to the family dynasty. It is Rubio who has embraced Dubya and his frightfully damaged legacy as if it were the greatest inheritance of all, and Rubio who channels Bush’s cocky and Christian compassion more than anyone else in the field. Rubio, more than anyone, would set out to follow in Bush’s foreign policy footsteps. Rubio, one feels, has already memorized his rousing address unveiling his signature guest worker program.
And in the greatest reminder of W.’s stubbornness, Rubio seems unwilling to believe that he has now been taken host by the problem that Bushism is. Team Rubio, buoyed along by its staunchest supporters, seems intransigent in its conviction that the Trump insurgency is fueled by human scum, which must only be scraped off the bottom of the party boot heel for the GOP to be rid of them forever. There is zero awareness that the base has come unglued at last from the loyalty to the Bush years it has labored under for so long. Worse, there is not even an intuition that just a little repudiation could go such a long way.
Is there a way of getting through to Rubio before Jeb’s fate befalls him too? Probably not. Rubio, already the prisoner of a hubris feedback loop that demands and rewards increasingly messianic behavior, believes that he has eliminated not only Bush but Cruz from contention. If he can beat Cruz in evangelical-rich South Carolina, he can beat him anywhere! John Kasich, meanwhile, strikes Team Rubio as ridiculously un-Bush — a '90s-era process guy given to quasi-pantheistic free association and a bro-hug take on the soft humility Bush politically discarded after 9/11.
So here is Rubio, oblivious to the danger of talking as if we aren’t already 15 long and bitter years into the 21st century. At a time when more Republicans than ever are calling out for fundamental reform, abandoning the Bush legacy, he's offering a change in generations that would change nothing else.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
James Poulos is a contributing editor at National Affairs and the author of The Art of Being Free, out January 17 from St. Martin's Press. He has written on freedom and the politics of the future for publications ranging from The Federalist to Foreign Policy and from Good to Vice. He fronts the band Night Years in Los Angeles, where he lives with his son.
-
Olympics 2024: is Paris ready to party?
Talking Point Build-up to this summer's Games 'marred' by rows over national identity, security and pollution
By The Week UK Published
-
Solo travel: the 'ultimate indulgence in 2024'
The Week Recommends Why more of us are choosing to go on holiday on our own
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
'Stormy Monday for Don'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published