While talking about defunding Planned Parenthood former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said he doesn’t think the government should give $500 million a year to organizations for women’s health services.
“I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues,” said Bush Tuesday evening in front of a crowd in Tennessee.
That sounds pretty bad, but what likely made things worse for Bush in the eyes of many conservatives is what follows.
Bush later issued a statement saying he “misspoke”. This is part of why so many on the right fawn over Donald Trump and have animosity toward Bush.
Bush was actually a pretty conservative governor for eight years. He even redirected funds from Planned Parenthood to abstinence education as governor. But his biggest problem is that he embodies virtually everything the far right despises.
He’s a professional politician, the establishment candidate and many of his positions at the federal level just aren’t conservative. He supports Common Core, an issue most on the right abhor because it’s the opposite of getting the federal government out of the school system by giving power of educating children to the state and local governments.
He’s also not in line with many conservatives when it comes to immigration. According to the Washington Examiner, Bush said in February that he supports a path to citizenship for immigrants who are in the US illegally.
But what really turns conservatives on about Trump and turns them off toward Bush and most of the other GOP candidates is how firm they are in their convictions.
When Bush said he doesn’t think the government should use taxpayer money for women’s health services, that sounded bad by itself but it’s not that bad compared to trump saying immigrants are rapists and that he doesn’t like soldiers who were captured in war. In fact, when Trump says those things, his poll numbers jump.
That’s because Trump doesn’t back down when he says something controversial. He doubles down and sticks to his guns.
Bush on the other hand, just like most career politicians, tried to backtrack and say he “misspoke”. If he would just own up to what he said, voters would be more forgiving. They might even gain some admiration for him. Instead of taking about how good he is on a prominent issue right now, people are talking about the fact that he said something dumb and didn’t stand up for himself or his ideology.
Conservatives are tired of being attacked by the media. They’re even more tired of politicians who back down to the liberal media.
twomenonabench 