Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s recent Facebook announcement that he was further exploring his options to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 was met with yawns from many conservatives, and outright derision from others. The GOP base, it seems, has had its fill of the Bush family — or, for that matter, any other squishy Republican candidate who loves big government as much as the Democrats, but just wants the GOP in charge of it.

But who hasn’t yet had enough of the Bushes? The Republican donor class, of course — the limousine RINOs (Republicans in name only) who are comfortable with crony capitalism, who favor unlimited numbers of immigrants who will work for less money, and who have no problems with a big centralized government, as long as the GOP is in charge of it.

Jeb Bush is the guy that these folks have been pining for — like they pined for Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008, both of whom lost to Barack Obama, a true liberal.

Does that mean that the conservative Republican base is irrelevant? Hardly; in fact, if you doubt that, then you are simply in denial over the recent midterm “wave” election, in which conservatives took majorities in both chambers of Congress and won control over more than 30 governorships and state legislatures. There are now more Republican lawmakers in state and federal office than at any time since Eisenhower was president.

Today’s GOP establishment: “No conservatives allowed”

What’s more, there are potential 2016 GOP candidates that the bulk of the Republican Party probably would support — Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas are just two that come to mind — but they are enemies of the establishment: fiscally conservative, small government-minded, free marketers who want to see crony corporate establishment walls dismantled and the people, once again, represented in Washington.

None of those principles matter anymore to the Republican establishment, though the party’s platform still promotes such principles. Like Obama, today’s GOP leaders and major donors are content to ignore the implications of the midterm elections; Obama won’t admit that the midterm results were a complete, resounding rejection of his policies (amnesty, salvaging Obamacare, leaving the massive federal bureaucracy funded and intact, etc.), and Republican leaders like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner won’t admit that the midterms were a complete, resounding rejection of their policies (amnesty, salvaging Obamacare, leaving the massive federal bureaucracy funded and intact, etc.).

As noted by conservative columnist Ben Shapiro, “Jeb Bush promises to fulfill all these criteria.”

He further observed in a recent column:

He says he feels “a little out of step with my party” on immigration and recently said that illegal immigration wasn’t a “felony” but an “act of love”; his support for Common Core has more than a whiff of cronyism to it; just weeks ago, he told The Wall Street Journal that he would be willing to “lose the primary to win the general without violating [his] principles.”

This is precisely what is wrong with today’s Republican Party, Shapiro opines: “For all the talk about grassroots exasperation with the Republican elites, it is the Republican elites who despise the grassroots.”

The GOP donor class is angry with the party’s base

That is absolutely valid, and anyone who doubts as much should take these following examples to heart:

— When Cruz, Paul and Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan criticized John O. Brennan as President Obama’s nomination to become CIA director (Cruz launched a mega-filibuster in the Senate in an unsuccessful attempt to block his nomination because of his support for the administration’s policy of using drones to kill American citizens overseas), Sens. McCain of Arizona and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina — two establishment favorites — criticized them. McCain characterized the three of them as “wacko birds.”

— The GOP donor class and establishment spent big to protect incumbents and beat back conservative challengers in the primaries last spring, as promised.

— The GOP establishment now apparently has its sights set on ousting another proven conservative, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, in the primaries leading up to 2016, because he’s not “moderate” enough.

“Republican elites do not believe in the dismantling of the welfare state; they believe in its maintenance,” wrote Shapiro. “They do not believe in the unsophisticated free marketeering of the tea party; they believe in a strong government hand on the economic tiller, so long as that hand is benevolent toward their friends. They do not believe in small government; they believe in large government that serves their ends. If given the choice, a few would even select Hillary Clinton as president over Texas Senator Ted Cruz.”

Sources:

//cnsnews.com
//www.newser.com
//www.huffingtonpost.com
//www.breitbart.com