Former Florida Governor, Brother of Bush 43, and son of Bush 41, Jeb Bush penned an op-ed for the Washington Post Monday wherein he made case for the defense of free markets and the “Right” of all Americans “to rise” in that system.
Think about it. We talk about the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to assembly. The right to rise doesn’t seem like something we should have to protect.
But we do. We have to make it easier for people to do the things that allow them to rise. We have to let them compete. We need to let people fight for business. We need to let people take risks. We need to let people fail. We need to let people suffer the consequences of bad decisions. And we need to let people enjoy the fruits of good decisions, even good luck.
That is what economic freedom looks like. Freedom to succeed as well as to fail, freedom to do something or nothing. People understand this. Freedom of speech, for example, means that we put up with a lot of verbal and visual garbage in order to make sure that individuals have the right to say what needs to be said, even when it is inconvenient or unpopular. We forgive the sacrifices of free speech because we value its blessings.
But when it comes to economic freedom, we are less forgiving of the cycles of growth and loss, of trial and error, and of failure and success that are part of the realities of the marketplace and life itself.
You can read more of it here.
Generally speaking, I agree with much of what Governor Bush had to say in the op-ed. I do believe both conventional wisdom and the default track in Washington are headed toward creating and preserving a system that levels the playing field in the name of “fairness” whilst doing very little to make the system “fair.” The answer seems to have become more government when less government would serve the stated objective. I suppose that’s the bleeding wound liberal-progressive ideology has burdened us with; and I’m fairly certain they will no doubt make the argument that government has the stitches and the ointment to heal their self-imposed affliction.
Purely from a programming perspective, could Bush have chosen a worse date to release this op-ed? Kim Jong Il dies and North Korea runs a missile test = probably not the day for a second-tier Bush Republican to tackle the ideological differences that plague our nation. Maybe it’ll hang around til Thursday or so; when the Korea story fades a bit. I’m sure by the weekend people will be ready to have that conversation…. over Christmas dinner?
Timing never really was Jeb’s greatest strength.
