Why? Two of them (Carter and Clinton) are Democrats, one of whom is married to the presumptive Democratic candidate, and of the other two, one has been trashed vehemently by Trump for the Iraq war, and the other not only has a son trashed vehemently by Trump for the Iraq war but another who was bullied and made to look like a wimp and more or less knocked out of the race by Trump. Non-support by all of these guys should be a foregone conclusion. What would be interesting is if any of them were to support Trump.
Jeb and all the other primary candidates pledged to support the party’s candidate. It was seen live by millions of people. Any former GOP candidate that doesn’t honor the pledge will be seen as contemptible liars. Your character is only good as your word. Party unity is crucial for the state elections, Congress and the presidency. Its one unified party platform.
The rest of the Bushes didn’t make that pledge and can support whoever they want.
And Trump announced that the pledge no longer applied to him. Now, I’m sure he meant that he was only withdrawing from the parts binding him, but that’s not really how things work.
Shrug. Not that I like Jeb, but surely it’s better to be a liar than a Trump supporter? Country before party and all that.
Excellent post, as ever, from Qin.
Jeb has no obligation to vote for his victor, any more than Sanders or any other Democrat will have any obligation to vote for that contemptible old wretch Hillary — however: having fashioned a loyalty oath to target one particular opponent, by not abiding by the rules he made when it rebounds to that opponent, he forfeits any claim to the title of gentleman.
Trump has made two major policy announcements since the pledge which raise major constitutional and policy issues: to ban all Muslims from entering the US, whether or not it is constitutional, and to give a haircut to US creditors, again whether or not it’s constitutional.
He’s also announced that he’s fine with torture. Only problem he sees with US policy is that it’s not used enough.
Anybody who says they personally find those proposals reprehensible, but feels compelled to support Trump because of the pledge given before he announced them, would be the contemptible ones in my opinion.
If the Republicans truly love America, they will run one of their bigger names as an independent, thus offering Jeb and many others an option to not voting.
I agree. But any objections that JEB! may have about Trump were fully known to the voters and the delegates who will nominate him. That’s what this pledge is. Even if I disagree with the end result of the nominating process, and I disagree with the beliefs of the chosen candidate, I will still support him.
If after this process occurs, there is something that happens, then an argument could be made that Jeb! (and the GOP primary voters) never contemplated such a thing when he made his pledge. Sort of a “mistake of fact” defense in a contract formation.
But in this instance, Jeb! knew that Trump is a loose cannon, and the primary voters supported him nonetheless. If David Duke is running in the primary, another candidate signs a pledge, and Duke wins, then the other candidate cannot rightfully say he cannot support Duke because of his racist view. Those views were known, and instead of signing the pledge, the candidate should say “I will support the nominee, unless it is Duke.”
Jeb! didn’t do that here and he is simply dishonoring his pledge.
Such a “pledge” is more honored in its breaching than in its keeping. It’s a stupid pledge, and having taken it in the first place already impugned all their characters as either easily bullied coward panderers or shameless opportunistic panderers. It can’t get hurt further.
When on that first joint appearance months ago The Donald was the only one who would not commit right away to support ANYONE who got the nomination, then, he was the one who was really being honest. He eventually fell in line, however, just so people stopped asking, but nobody was under any misconception that he would stick with it if things did not go his way and his followers were perfectly fine with feeling he was just going through the proper ritual and his words and deeds assured them that he would do what he damn well pleased in the end.
The argument seems to be that since Trump did not (or we assume he would not) honor the pledge, then it is fair game for others not to honor it. This thread is about Jeb! and not Trump.
Jeb! did not say that he would only pledge to support the nominee so long as that nominee honored the same pledge. He said he would support the nominee. Period. He could have raised any of those objections at the time, but he hedged his bet hoping that Trump would not be the nominee.
It is like the rule in appellate courts that in order to complain of something on appeal, you have to raise it at the trial court the moment that a potential objection comes to light. You cannot sandbag. You can’t let objectionable stuff come into the trial, sit silently hoping your guy wins, and when he doesn’t win, then complain about the objectionable stuff.
That is what Jeb! is doing here. He rolled the dice by signing the pledge, and now that his calculation was incorrect, he wants to back off from it. That is not how honesty should work.
And again I never denied the success of Operation Desert Storm. But you were claiming that I could not make any arguments on events that took place before my birth which would mean virtually all historical topics are undebatable.
Yes my point was that Bush 43 was a logical continuation of Bush 41’s presidency in terms of personnel and ideology. You actually buy into the whole “Dubya is stupid” normie liberal line? He’s quite a clever politician who used a folksy persona to advance his agenda.
So where am I supposed to make arguments if not based on the evidence provided in books, periodicals, and the like?
Which is why I added that they were elitist in the sense of advancing elite political interests.
We would have been better off taking the Alfredo islands instead. Cream > Tomato.
Well, at least we did take over the Sandwich Islands.
Jeb Bush, the candidate himself, is almost as inconsequential as Lindsay Graham. He really is a complete and total goner of a candidate. I doubt Donald Trump cares an iota what he says or thinks.
However, the Bush family, on the other hand, probably still has a lot going on behind the scenes. Deep ties to the energy sector. Deep ties to Wall St. Deep ties to Washington. Trump can beat one of those, but to take on all three is asking a lot. And then there’s the fact that Ted Cruz, with his lock on the God vote, seems to be none too fond of the Donald as well.
Donald, despite all of his rhetoric and bluster, is going to have to make nice to at least some of these segments within the system, and he’s got about a month to start making progress. Otherwise, even if it’s not a brokered convention, it’ll be a dead convention, which is almost as bad.
If only we could get Turkey under control.
Oh I don’t think it will be dead, it will be very entertaining to see the crazy turned up by 11 in Cleveland.
In the past the Party had to worry only about just a few “old crazy uncles” in the family at [del]Thanksgiving[/del] convention time. Now it is likely to not be just one but to be full of Pat Buchanans and Clint Eastwoods…
How would banning all Muslims from entering the US be unconstitutional?
Here’s three ways;
[QUOTE=Article IV, Section 2]
The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=The 1st Amendment]
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=The 14th Amendment]
No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
[/QUOTE]
Also, from here.
It is not a sure thing, guys that investigate the matter point out that Trump should not be so confident in getting approval from the courts.
IMHO Trump is being a Jerk since he already reported that his rich Muslim friends will be exempted from that ban. Really, any poor people voting for Trump would be like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.
Jeb is done as a candidate. He’s never going to hold elective office again. Which is fine, he can fall back on being an incredibly wealthy politically connected bigshot. But he doesn’t have to worry about how the public sees him welshing on his pledge to support Trump, because he doesn’t have to face the public.
There are three things he can do. One is to openly support Hillary and help her win the election. Another is to openly support Trump and help him win the election. The third is to refuse to help Trump but not support Hillary either, and focus on helping the Republican party keep the House, Senate, Governorships, and state houses.
So he’s not gonna support Trump. So what? What are the outraged Trump supporters gonna do to him, not vote for him?