A smart counter to Jeb’s ad this morning. Trump could have gone after Bush for his heresies on policy, like immigration or Common Core, but swiping at him for his coziness with the Clintons is a more viscerally populist message. After all, the point of Trumpmania isn’t that he’ll govern more conservatively than Bush if elected, it’s that he’ll smash the system built by the ruling class to rig things to their own advantage. Who better embodies that system than the Bushes and Clintons? In fact, the special squeamishness of a Bush/Clinton election isn’t just that it would involve dynasties on both sides, it’s that those two dynasties have themselves developed a sort of familial relation by virtue of Bill Clinton’s closeness with George H.W. Bush. The spectacle of Jeb, the would-be GOP nominee, giving his “sister-in-law,” the would-be Democratic nominee, an award for public service despite knowing how that photo op would play during the election captures the hauteur of the whole enterprise. Who cares if conservatives didn’t like it? He’s a Bush. It’s his nomination by right. Watch the second clip below of the award ceremony, held in 2013, in which Jeb jokes about the coming election. Any other aspiring GOP nominee would have had to think carefully about participating in something like that with Hillary. Not Jeb, or so he thought. This ad is Trump’s populist way of signaling that he’s going to make the Bushes play by the same rules that everyone else has to. Which is a mighty ironic message coming from Donald Trump, but Trumpmania doesn’t do irony.
It’s also a clever way for Trump to deflect his own Hillary problem. Jeb may have given her a medal but at least he didn’t donate to her campaign or invite her to his wedding. Trump’s spin on that so far has been smart — I only did it because I had to, because this rotten system requires me to pay fealty to the ruling class to do business in America — but a little tu quoque at Jeb’s expense can’t hurt either. Anyway, you’re bound to see variations of this ad from every Republican who’s still in contention in the race come, say, December, so enjoy Trump getting the ball rolling. Exit quotation from the man himself: “I’m turning down millions of dollars of campaign contributions—feel totally stupid doing so, but hope it is appreciated by the voters.” Who do you suppose that’s aimed at?
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