Jeb Bush Sours On Prospect of Exporting Democracy

Republican Presidential candidate Jeb Bush took a stand against a key neoconservative tenet in an interview with the Daily Caller, where he criticized the efficacy of promoting democracy overseas.

“It has to be tempered with the realization that not every country is immediately going to become a little ‘d’ democratic country,” Jeb Bush said in an interview with The Daily Caller. “Iraq would be a good example of that I think.

“I think ultimately security will lead towards democracy and having an engaged America will help make that so, but you cannot have democracy without security,” he added.

Bush’s statements fly in the face of common neoconservative military doctrine which supports permanent warfare status, with the intent of overthrowing hostile regimes and installing democratic governments. It’s possible that Jeb is attempting to put himself more in line with the American people’s sentiment, which is currently a war-weary status thanks to the tragic blunders of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jeb has been making many positive statements since his campaign which are not anathema to libertarian republicans. He’s stated that he “would not have gone into Iraq,” and “knowing what we know now, …I would not have engaged.”

Also, despite his past statements against gay marriage, he’s taken a more positive tone since the Supreme Court decision was handed down, saying that we should “show respect” for gay relationships.

Perhaps Jeb sees the challenge from the rise of libertarian republicans in the party and wants to try and expand into their voting bloc at the expense of Rand Paul? If so, his rhetoric against normalizing relations with Cuba would be a departure from the liberty movement’s ideas that we should extend peaceful relations to the island nation. When asked by the Daily Caller why we shouldn’t trade with Cuba, even though we trade with China or Saudi Arabia, he responded…

“The difference between, say, China or Vietnam is we got something in return when we negotiated diplomatic relations with those countries,” Bush explained. “We had China enter into the [World Trade Organization] and we’ve driven them in some way as it relates to just being a partner, not just a partner for us, but a trading partner with the rest of the world — embracing standards that were global.”

“In the case of Vietnam, we got parity as it related to POWs and MIAs,” he continued. “We’ve got nothing in return for this effort other than to have, I guess, Barack Obama claim that this happened under his watch. This is a legacy building thing that perpetuates the regime.”

A CNN/ORC poll commissioned in late June found that only Jeb Bush and Donald Trump have double digit support among Republicans and Independents.