Jeb Bush on Immigration

When Jeb Bush spoke with ABC’s Diane Sawyer on August 28, 2012 she pointed out that he has been an impassioned voice for the Republican Party’s need to change its tone; his wife was born in Mexico. Diane questioned Jeb about a recent statement he made - “The conservative cause would be the governing philosophy as far as the eye could see and it’s doable if we just stop acting stupid” – he said it’s not a radical idea, you need to get 50+% of the votes to win, Hispanics and Asians voter I would say share many of the values that conservatives embrace – the family being the most powerful political unit in society, the need to reform education so that there’s access to opportunity, small businesses driving economic prosperity, and a strong national defense. All of these things are shared values but if you have a tone that says we want your vote of course but don’t join our time, you’re not going to get very far”. Jeb brought up that his granddaughter in addition to her Mexican heritage is also of Canadian and Iraqi descent and said 20 years from now when it comes to checking a box for the Census she’ll have to say ‘not applicable’ and that’s the America we should aspire to.    

On August 30 when George Stephanopoulos brought up Jeb’s quote about the conservative philosophy and asked what he meant about acting stupid, Jeb said “I’m a huge Paul Ryan fan because I think he’s the Jack Kemp kind of conservative that is hopeful and optimistic; our message needs to be that way, inspirational rather than scolding, the tone has to be positive and Paul Ryan is the exact kind of Republican that I would be advocating for.” George asked what things the Republicans have been doing that have been stupid and Jeb said “Sending a signal as it relates to issues like immigration, that it is only about border control rather than about how we create a climate about economic growth, it’s a gateway issue about an emerging voting population in our country, Hispanic voters, Asian voters, the country is becoming increasingly diverse, my message is really about the long haul, demographics are your destiny and if you just ignore it you do it at your own peril.”