We’re staring at the probability of another battle between two warring dynasties, Bush vs. Clinton, like the Capulets and Montagues in Romeo and Juliet. Of course, the speeches were a lot better in Shakespeare’s Verona: “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life” sure beats “Well, I’m not a scientist.” The worse thing is, that while the lovers’ tragedy lasts only two hours and may cost $200, this election cycle will take 16 numbing months, and cost well over the $6.3 billion price tag of the 2012 election. With that kind of money, we could buy Verona, or even fix some of the problems our country faces.
Both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush are money machines, but don’t be fooled: these two dynasties are very different. The Bush money will go to fight climate change and restrict health care (“Obamacare’s a monstrosity”). It will suppress voters’ rights (he purged 12,000 eligible Florida voters while governor), reduce women’s access to abortions (he pushed Florida’s “Choose Life” license plates), and promote government interference in private decisions (c.f. his fierce interference in the Terri Schiavo case). Despite the Supreme Court ruling, he’d slow down the implementation of gay rights (suggesting he'd continue the fight “over the long haul”), defuse unions, deflate the minimum wage, inflate the military, strengthen the NRA, and preserve tax breaks for the rich. These sound abstract but each one is sharp as Tybalt’s sword, the literal tipping point of Shakespeare’s play. And almost all the people who bleed are poor.
Middle-class and rich women will always get the abortions they need or want; poor women are being forced to bring unwanted children into a life of poverty (and often illness and crime), especially in states where Republicans have blocked everything from sex education to Planned Parenthood.
The thing is, Bush is the best Republican they’ve got. At this writing, Donald Trump’s in 2nd place. Trump never changes and, like the Nurse in Romeo, is in there basically for comic effect — but the fact that he’s a popular contender tells you all about the Republican party you need to know. A vote for Bush is a vote supporting those dim multitudes who’d vote for Trump in the first place, and cheer when he rails at the poor. Maybe he’s just jealous. In the Bible, Matthew says “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” No one ever says “Blessed are the rich for their children will inherit the earth tax-free.”
Money may not be the root of all evil, but it does have weight, like the sacks of marijuana that give Mexicans those muscular legs (according to Congressman Steve King). But instead of bulging calf muscles, Republicans seem to develop rigid hearts. Year after year they elect men (almost always men) who, with their high salaries, slick insurance policies and lots and lots of vacation time, pass laws that utterly ruin the specific lives of the poor. They’re strict on crime, too, and the connection between poverty and crime is obvious and ancient. Near the end of his play, Romeo’s trying to buy illegal poison from a poor apothecary, who cries “My poverty, but not my will, consents.”
It’s hard to tell how Clinton will manage, but on all these policies affecting women and the poor, she’ll be closer to helping than hurting them. With his party on his shoulders (like the immigrant’s marijuana sack), even a moderate-leaning Bush won’t be able to budge his party in the right direction. Besides, Bush’s policies aren’t as moderate as his demeanor. It’s good he’s polite, but that’s not enough to help those in need.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2015.