Jeb Bush in 1995: Publicly shaming single mothers is a good thing

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Newsmakers)

published 9 June 2015

Jeb Bush has built a reputation as a moderate in the Republican Party, but it's easy to forget that the former Florida governor has always been pretty conservative. Laura Bassett at The Huffington Post today provides a good reminder of that fact, dredging up a passage from his 1995 book Profiles in Character that argues publicly shaming unwed mothers has its upsides:

"One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame. Many of these young women and young men look around and see their friends engaged in the same irresponsible conduct. Their parents and neighbors have become ineffective at attaching some sense of ridicule to this behavior. There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out of wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful." [The Huffington Post]

In the chapter, titled "The Restoration of Shame," Bush also approvingly cited The Scarlet Letter as an example of constructive shaming, which makes us think that he may have missed the point of the book.