In an announcement that wasn’t all that unexpected, former governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal announced that he was ending his presidential campaign. Now we need Jeb “Just Eliminate Borders” Bush to do the same, particularly in light of his recent statements on how he would deal with terrorism and the Syrian refugee crisis following the attacks in Paris last week.
Sounding like the big-government, progressive Republican we’ve come to know, Bush called for the National Security Agency to resume the collection of private data on American citizens:
“I think we need to restore the metadata program, which was part of the Patriot Act. I think that was a useful tool to keep us safe and also to protect civil liberties.”
Yeah, because nothing says “protect civil liberties” like denying them.
In effect since 9/11, the NSA program was ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court, but that didn’t stop Bush:
“This is the time to re-evaluate our policies as it relates to these threats. The threat of global Islamic terrorism is a real one for our country… There is a lot riding on this. So I think we can have the proper balance of protecting privacy rights and making sure that we use all of the tools of intelligence to keep us safe.”
Bush has expressed his support of the NSA in the past, leading many to wonder if he was getting something on the side from AT&T. And in a CBS Face the Nation interview, he shared his feelings about those who objected to the program based on privacy issues:
“There’s no evidence, not a shred of evidence, that the metadata program has violated anybody’s civil liberties.”
I guess Bush doesn’t consider federal court rulings “evidence” enough. As far as the subject of Syrian refugees is concerned, Bush said he wouldn’t ban them from entering the United States:
“The answer to this is not to ban people from coming. The answer is to lead, to resolve the problem in Syria.”
In light of recent evidence that some of the Paris terrorists entered France as Syrian refugees, the issue of how to handle them in America has become a political issue; even prompting more than half of the nation’s governors to officially protest their admission into their states.
But that didn’t stop Jeb. Although he stressed how the U.S. shouldn’t accept refugees “if there’s any kind of concern,” he added:
“I don’t think we should eliminate our support for refugees. It’s been a noble tradition in our country for many years.”
You know what else is a noble tradition? The constitutional requirement of the Federal Government to “provide for the common defense.” Heck, even Harry Reid’s replacement as the Democrat party leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), thinks America should stop accepting Syrian refugees due to security concerns.
The Jebster is the choice of the Republican mainstream, just as John McCain was in 2008 and Mitt Romney was in 2012. And with policies like these, if Bush becomes the GOP nominee, he will end up just as they did.
David Leach is the owner and publisher of The Strident Conservative, where you will find news and opinion that’s politically-incorrect and always “right.” He is also a frequent contributor at RedState.com.
His political commentaries can be heard daily on KLZ560 AM at 5pm MST and on other Crawford Broadcasting stations throughout the day.
