Revenge of the sociopaths: Why GOP shut Jeb Bush’s compassion down

The party of Ann Coulter and Karl Rove doesn't want a lecture on tolerance. But there's a political motive, too

DIGBY

If there’s ever been a case of a serious presidential contender who doesn’t seem to have the fire in the belly, it’s Jeb Bush. He makes Fred Thompson’s somnambulent performance in 2008 look like Rahm Emanuel after shooting a triple espresso.

How else, for example, to explain what seem to be public utterances of an incoherent interior dialogue on the subject of immigration? It was just a few months ago that many in the GOP establishment called for the smelling salts over his rejection of a path to citizenship in his book called Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, when various wags whispered that it appeared he was politically rusty and out of step.

Then, this week he switched gears and declared that so-called “illegal” immigration is an “act of love” calling forth the condemnation of none other than his brother’s “brain” Karl Rove, who ominously warned him against using such terms and issued a pointed reminder that Rick Perry was roundly chastised for declaring that people who opposed immigration reform were “heartless.” (It’s one thing to deny millions of people basic human rights, it’s quite another to imply that those who deny them are somehow lacking in compassion. Let’s have some civility here, people!)

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our recent forays into the issue, it’s that immigration reform is the third rail of GOP politics. Even the crudest Tea Partier knows that the demographics are working against them, but the nativist strain of America’s right wing is a powerful and enduring force that strongly resists legalizing undocumented immigrants for both cultural and political reasons. This analysis of a Washington Post poll last January shows the thin line all GOP hopefuls will have to walk:

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http://www.salon.com/2014/04/09/revenge_of_the_sociopaths_why_gop_shut_jeb_bushs_compassion_down/