Posted on 04/21/2015 6:18:09 PM PDT by markomalley
One of the most glaring myths propagated by Washington — especially the two parties’ media loyalists — is that bipartisanship is basically impossible, that the two parties agree on so little, that they are constantly at each other’s throats over everything. As is so often the case for Washington partisan propaganda, the reality is exactly the opposite: from trade deals to Wall Street bailouts to a massive National Security and Penal State, the two parties are in full agreement on the bulk of the most significant D.C. policies (which is why the leading candidates of the two parties (from America’s two ruling royal families) will have the same funding base). But because policies that command the agreement of the two parties’ establishments are largely ignored by the D.C. press in favor of the issues where they have some disagreements, the illusion is created that they agree on nothing.
To illustrate how true this all is, consider the comments today of leading GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush. He appeared on Michael Medved’s conservative talk radio program, and was asked by the host what his favorite part of the Obama administration has been. His answer? As McClatchy’s Lesley Clark noted on Twitter, Bush hailed “Obama’s enhancement of NSA.” The audio was first posted by Ian Hanchett and is embedded below; here is the full transcript of the exchange:
Medved: If you were to look back at the last seven years, almost, what has been the best part of the Obama administration?
Jeb Bush: I would say the best part of the Obama administration would be his continuance of the protections of the homeland using the big metadata programs, the NSA being enhanced. Advancing this — even though he never defends it, even though he never openly admits it, there has been a continuation of a very important service, which is the first obligation, I think of our national government is to keep us safe. And the technologies that now can be applied to make that so, while protecting civil liberties are there. And he’s not abandoned them, even though there was some indication that he might.
It’s hardly unusual for even the most extremist right-wing Republicans to praise Obama’s foreign policy. GOP Congressman Peter King has repeatedly done just that, hailing Obama’s use of drones, assassination of a U.S. citizen with no due process, his upholding of indefinite detention powers, and the truncating of Miranda rights in terrorism cases. Just this week, GOP Senator Lindsey Graham — who has advocated bombing almost more Muslim countries in the last decade than he has fingers — said that he prefers Obama’s foreign policy over Rand Paul’s. A bipartisan coalition of Congressional outsiders tried in late 2013 to defund the NSA domestic spying program and almost succeeded, but the union of the parties’ establishments — the Obama White House, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi — whipped just enough votes to protect the program.
The cause of NSA mass surveillance has been particularly embraced by many Democrats because it was Obama doing it (as I’ve said before, if Edward Snowden had leaked this information when a Republican was in the Oval Office, there would be a massive statue erected of him outside of the MSNBC studios, where he is now often vilified). And now, Jeb Bush (in contrast to Rand Paul, who vowed to end NSA spying “on Day One”) has declared himself fully in support of that cause, hailing Obama for expanding these capabilities.
Same as the fatherland. I don't believe this was a slip of the tongue
"What is a Volk, in the higher sense of the term, and what is love of the fatherland?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lkisch_movement#Origins_in_the_19th_century
People wonder why the Republicans are cast as Nazi's. We really have to get rid of these imposters slandering who we are.
They are 180 degrees from who we are yet they always in the end win the nomination with our vote. Example: McCain and the Bush's.
+1 Good post! True too!
I like Jeb less and less every time he opens his mouth.
Jeb Bush is a parody. How can he be serious? He’s busy kissing Democrat behind and not even trying to get Republicans.
Yes he’s dumb enough to tell us exactly who he is.
Now, we will we be dumb enough to elect him?
I know I damn sure won’t be.
Thank you for the ping, Nully.
Keep digging, Jeb. Keep digging.
Each time you think Jeb Bush has hit rock bottom, he surprises us with his amazing ability to keep on digging.
Jeb's only beef with the Obama administration seems to be his belief that members Bush family are the sole rightful owners of the Patriot Act and the NSA's surveillance apparatus. In other words, it's not that Obama is doing anything wrong, he's just the "wrong" person to do it.
Important comment at #46:
“Can we get someone who “represents” us?”
Elect a pro-2nd amendment, Constitutional Sheriff in your County. That gives you legal and armed muscle to take on the fascists, while also protecting your home and family where you live.
The No. 1 strategy in any war zone is to build a base from where you can protect your people and supplies while also securing a point to carry out operations against the enemy.
Thanks, sergeantdave.
Got that right. He’ll never get a vote from this household. His brother was great his first term but he had some sort of RAT invasion of the body snatchers the second term. That must have been his “I’ll have more flexibility” true colors flip. Since then, the whole Bush clan has been RAT with Jeb being the worst. RAT or GOP, it’s all the same and they will get their NWO no matter what this next election. It’s been proven our votes don’t matter because they can program the voting machines to tally for their candidate. Then there’s the illegals’ votes next time and we’ll see more voter fraud and precincts showing 100% for their candidate. It’ll be Box 13 at every precinct in the US. On the national level, we’ve lost. Time to make sure conservatives are in place on the local level.
George W. was a mixed bag from the get-go. He said and did some good things (including a campaign promise not to nation-build abroad, which went out the window), but he was pro-amnesty and pro-open borders from the very beginning, and his "compassionate conservatism" was basically a signal that he'd do nothing to oppose the expanding welfare state.
And let's not forget the fact that the surveillance state that we're enjoying today had its roots post-9/11. I think that after 9/11, Bush and his team realized they could pretty much get away with anything with the nation behind them under the pretext of "national security." His second term did allow him to show more of his true colors on every front, but those colors were there from the very beginning, just not as vivid.
The bottom line is, I never liked or trusted the Bush clan, and as far as I'm concerned a choice between another Clinton and another Bush is no choice at all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
