When Jeb! Bush invoked Mitt Romney's line about "free stuff," I jokingly said that it was only a matter of time before Jeb would speak out against the so-called "47 percent."
I didn't actually expect Jeb! to go there but, between his comments on "free stuff" and what he said today, he's skating awfully close.
“I think the left wants slow growth because that means people are more dependent upon government,” Bush told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “I reject that. I believe that people want to rise up, they want the tools to achieve earned success, and how we tax and regulate really matters.”
Ignoring his conspiracy theorizing for a moment, taken together Jeb is echoing everything Mitt Romney stood for without repeating his exact words. Yet.
Between his recent comments, Jeb is essentially saying that some voters are victims dependent upon government who vote for Democrats in exchange for "free stuff." What Jeb said during his interview with Fox Business this morning is just another layer of contempt for minority voters who do not buy what he's selling. Jeb believes minority voters are dumb, dependent, and deluded.
Jeb also theorizes that Democrats intentionally cripple economic growth to breed this class of victims who are easily bribed by handouts.
That would make slightly more sense than none if economic growth necessarily translated to increased minority household wealth or higher wages, but it doesn't. On the contrary, we've seen what unregulated, reckless growth can do to minority communities who've been sold a box of goods called sub-prime loans.
Minority voters understand that Jeb's talk of a deregulated market and wild economic growth would be a rising tide that lifts some boats, but not theirs.
Rather than change his message, Jeb insults the intelligence of voters who don't buy the same conservative orthodoxy that has never helped them.