Jeb Bush was coming right here to Broad Street Elementary
School, about 100 feet away from my home.
Well, I figured this is an event I should go to, just for the fun of
seeing retail politics up close.
It was more elaborate than I expected, with the full Bush entourage
in tow. Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins,
Bush, his wife, his son were all there.
Lindsey Graham spoke first, followed by Susan Collins. And then Bush spoke.
It is always surprising how more cogent their arguments
appear when heard in full, and not as snippets
on TV. And one’s own analysis
always has new insights for one rather than just reading the op-ed
writers. The audience was surprisingly
moderate, and Jeb Bush was surprisingly moderate. A question was, “do you agree there is
climate change, some people seem unable to accept that?” Jeb Bush’s response was, “yes definitely there
is climate change, and one of the reasons is human impact.” Wow.
I didn’t think Republicans agreed to even this much.
It was a standing room only crowd, and I found a spot at the
back. The group standing next to me were
clearly neighbors and knew each other.
They talked about another neighbor who was going to vote for Sanders,
but without the derision I would have expected, especially when compared to the
anger with which they spoke of Hillary. “She
is liar,” he said flatly, and went into details of the Benghazi incident. “She
will lie about what she ate for breakfast if it suits her.”
Most of the questions were moderate (except one on
immigration), including one on from a pastor from rural Pennsylvania who forcefully
described poor people (“138% below the poverty line, they were ‘dying’ with
lack of healthcare”) who had been able to get healthcare from the Affordable
Care Act, and wanted to know what the answer was for them if that was
changed. Bush actually listed a couple
of things he liked in the ACA
(coverage for pre-existing conditions and coverage till children are 26) and
said he would keep them, while changing other aspects of the law. And he talked about keeping costs down, etc.
etc. Another question was from someone
who works with a literacy non-profit and demanded to know what the answer was
for the poor today. “When you and I were
young,” she said, “everyone had chance.
What can I tell them now?” Bush
called out to his sister in the audience, who runs a literacy foundation, and
talked about various changes needed in the education system.
His primary focus education system is the lack of testing
and lack of any measure to see whether a child has learnt what he or she should
have learnt in that grade. He talked
about the testing measures he had introduced in Florida, and one questioner
called him up on that, and asked him isn’t that a runaway train with no control? Wasn’t it too much testing? Bush stuck to what he said about testing
being important to ensure that every child learns.
His biggest applause came when he said, “on the first day of
office I give you my word that I will not blame President Obama. Unlike the president, who blamed my brother
for everything.” Moderate though the
crowd was, they clearly strongly disliked Obama.
The next biggest applause came when he laughed at Trump, and
said (in response to Trump’s comment at the debate last night), “no, Trump,
_you_ are the loser.” Lots of other
anti-Trump lines brought forth applause as well.
The third biggest applause was when he took a dig at Hillary
Clinton.
The audience was almost liberal, except when it came to
America’s position in the world (and approval of Obama). They were very much for a notion that “America
should lead,” America knows best, and America should resolve conflicts, etc.
etc.
The most interesting conversation was with an Asian woman in
a smart green jacket standing next to me.
She had come all the way from Florida to volunteer for the Bush
campaign. She had been in Iowa as
well. She said he was the best governor
they had had. I asked her specifically
what she liked. One, she said, was that
he made government more efficient. She
and her husband have two small businesses, LOCs, and she made it so much more
easier to do things after Bush made some changes. In places like California and Delaware, she
said, there was so much more paperwork, and one had to mail in forms, whereas
in Florida now they could do it all online.
“He made things efficient with IT, like he says on the campaign trail!”
she said. “It made our lives so much
easier!” I nodded, and asked for
more. The next big achievement to her
was education. She said her son’s best
friend, an African American, was in a poor neighborhood, and consequently in a
poor school. He was about move to a
charter school and was now doing extremely well. “What about the idea that en masse movement
of students from public schools further hurts the poor schools?” I asked. “Anyone who wants to leave can leave,” she
said. “You know, anyone can leave.” We talked some more on the topic, and she
believes in taking personal responsibility, which is in line with what I have
observed in Asian families. They work
hard, take nothing for granted, do everything for their children to help them
succeed. She proudly mentioned her son
who goes to Philips Academy in Andover, MA (an elite private school).
She and her husband were going to South Carolina next. It was hard to fault her for her support of
Jeb Bush. It had worked for her.
