Meh . . . the non-compassionate Bush

Another reason Jeb Bush should not be president.   Along with my previously discussed objections, based on his cruelty to a classmate in prep school and his demonic attempts to force a brain-dead woman to be kept alive (see ShrinkRap on 2/5/15;  3/16/15;  and two on 6/11/15), is this story about Jeb advocating shame to enforce his moral imperatives.   The report comes from an article on Daily Kos by correspondent SemDem.

*     *     *

"This man cannot be president. I am not exaggerating what happened here.  [According to a law passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Gov. Jeb Bush] If a mother was going to give up her child for adoption . . . she was required to PUBLISH HER ENTIRE SEXUAL HISTORY in a major newspaper.

"The idea behind it was . . . to publicly shame the woman. . . . It was called the Scarlet Letter Law.  Your friends, neighbors, employers, family, and acquaintances would be able to read [the names of] everyone you had sex with . . .

"If you were raped and conceived a child, . . . you couldn't give the child up for adoption in the State of Florida unless you gave the rapist a chance to read about it in the paper. . . .

"The mother had to put all her personal information, including weight, her sexual partners, and WHERE they may have conceived.  NO exception was made in a case of rape!  . . .  It had to run for one month at the MOTHER'S personal expense even though this was forced on her. . . .  

"Instead of being publicly shamed, Florida women simply refused to do this.  It may have happened, but I don't know of one case where a woman printed her sexual history in the paper.

"Do you know what DID happen though?  Abortions increased.  Adoptions dropped--by a lot. . . . a personal friend of mine . . . wanted to adopt his stepdaughter when the law was in effect, but he couldn't.  Not without humiliating his wife.  This was JEB!'s Florida.

"Eventually. . . Bush conceded this may not have been the brightest idea.  He relented.  But it got what he wanted: to SHAME women.

" . . . .  The backlash from this awful law was such that the law was repealed fairly quickly. . . .  What is reprehensible is how JEB! is being allowed to rewrite recent history as if he never wanted this law and was somehow unable to stop it. He could have and he didn't.  It was a very shameful time in our state's history, and one that shouldn't be overlooked. . . . "

*     *     *

I don't doubt for a minute that Jeb Bush willingly signed this law.   Besides speaking and writing approvingly about the desirable role of shame in controlling out of wedlock births, this is completely in keeping with that prep school bully -- Jeb -- who led a gang of boys to chase down a classmate with long hair, throw him to the ground, and forceably hold him down while they cut off his long hair, even as he screamed and begged them not to.

Jeb's self-righteous smugness and basic cruelty to those he deems in violation of his priggish superiority make big brother Dubya look downright humane and compassionate --and a smarter and a more decent human being as well.   Having him on the campaign trail just shows up Jeb's deficiencies, even measured by the very low bar of George W. Bush.   His campaigning for Jeb! won't help.

In the indelible words of Sarah Palin:

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

Ralph