Question for all of you; Is former President George W. Bush and his brother Jeb Bush the same person? I would hope you answered correctly. The correct answer is NO! They are, flat out, not the same person. George W. Bush was Governor of Texas from 1995 - 2000, and then President of the United States from 2001 - 2009. Jeb Bush was Governor of Florida from 1999 - 2007. So why in the hell are people asking Jeb Bush that if he were President back in 2001, would he have invaded Iraq knowing what we know now (meaning no connection to 9/11 and no WMD’s).
Who cares? Why are we so concerned with asking Jeb Bush “what would you do?” questions about events from 14 years in the past? He was not President! His brother was! Just because he shares the same last name with the man who decided to go to war in the Middle East, does not mean that we should be peppering him with hypothetical questions and “what if” scenarios. It’s not fair.
I’m not a Republican at all, I have leaned Democrat in every election since I was able to vote, but this attempt to connect Jeb Bush to the wars started by his brother is absurd. There is no need for it. Why are we so concerned about past actions that had nothing to do with this man? Can we ask about the future, maybe, for once? How will he fix the situation in the Middle East? What can be done to stop ISIS? How would you handle the Iranian desire to obtain nuclear energy for both power and nuclear weapons? How can the United States become energy independent from Middle Eastern oil? All of those questions are far better suited for Jeb Bush today. If you want to know about the decision to go to war back in 2003, you may want to ask George W. Bush, since he was the President that decided to invade Iraq 12 years ago. I thought reporters did research and could tell the difference between who was President and who was not? Time to go back to school, idiots.
This is the one thing that irritates me about how we, as a society, report on elections. We try to find something sensationalized and run with it, no matter how irrelevant it is to the actual problems in the country at the moment, if it gets views or hits or mentions or likes or retweets or whatever, our media ramps it up to be the single most important thing at that moment.
Yes, the wars were terrible and cost us more than just billions of dollars, they cost the lives of thousands of soldiers. We are still, to some degree, involved in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead of asking questions about past actions, we may want to focus on asking questions about how we are going to find solutions. My goodness, that sounds like a crazy plan to me! But, wait, I forgot...Solutions don’t sell papers or get more clicks. Thinking of fantasy world situations and transferring the responsibilities of one person to another with wild accusations and stupid irrelevant questions does get the papers moving and the money rolling in.
I feel sorry for Jeb Bush. He is torn between two worlds. The first world is that of his family; A political dynasty with a very high profile that includes two Presidents of the United States who both went to war in Iraq and were considered to be polarizing figures in our collective mindset. The second world that Jeb is living in is his political one; where he is trying to be his own island with his own ideals and policies. Unfortunately, he is forced to live in both worlds because of the policies that his brother put into action when he was President. Policies that when looked back upon, may not appear to be made with proper intelligence or intellect.
The media is forcing these two worlds together while at the same time, forcing Jeb Bush to pick one to live in. He was questioned on whether or not he loves his brother. Stupid question! Of course he loves his brother, that’s his brother! Do you seriously think that just because people disagreed with George W. Bush’s policies that Jeb Bush is going to distance himself from the person he grew up with? Come on! The only things these questions look to do is to cause Jeb to create a disaster for himself. If he sides with his brother, he’s an idiot because he sided with his brother. If he goes against his brother he’s a monster who doesn’t support his family. Either way, Jeb loses. This is not how major media outlets conduct themselves when asking questions. This is how the Daily Enquirer reported on Bat Boy sightings.
This type of reporting is getting sickening to me. Jeb is in no way, shape, or form his brother. Jeb is not responsible for any of the policies that George W. made from 2001 - 2009. He is his own individual. Asking stupid “what if” questions doesn’t do anything but bring up the fact that Jeb is the brother to George. That’s it! It is 2015, let’s start acting like we are trying to find solutions to problems that are in front of us, rather than trying to point fingers and blame people for things that happened 14 years ago that we can no longer control. Let’s ask current questions that are important for the future of our country. Stop looking for gossip to publish and give out some real information about policies and ideals. It may not get the clicks that the 24-hour media outlets want, but it will get them a hell of a lot more respect from both sides of the aisle.
Damn it, who am I kidding. It’s never going to happen...
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