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“Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in.”
Michael Corleone said those words in “The Godfather: Part III.” But they could just as easily apply to much of the GOP in 2025. Because, like it or not, it seems the Bush family is preparing to rear its head yet again.
This time it’s one Jonathan Bush – a cousin of president George W. Bush – who appears to be gearing up for a gubernatorial run in Maine next year.
The Bush brand appeals to two nearly extinct branches of the Republican Party: neoconservatives and country club moderates (to put it in South Carolina terms, think Nikki Haley). Just as Democrats are drifting ever further to the left, the GOP is likewise lurching more to the right – with the middle shrinking ever smaller as a result. In the age of Donald Trump – in which loud personalities, big (beautiful?) policies and grand gestures sell – the Bushes and their dwindling numbers stubbornly cling to a political ideology that’s more akin to Nelson Rockefeller than Ronald Reagan.
It was Reagan, in fact, who inadvertently created this situation in July 1980 by asking George H.W. Bush to be his running mate. At the time, Old Man Bush was, quite simply, a washed-up politician with an Old School-certified résumé. Though his 1980 presidential bid had recently gone belly up, Bush still had a following among moderate to liberal Republicans (yes, such creatures did exist back then, although they were already on the political endangered species list). His presence on the ticket calmed the left flank of the GOP and unified the party in ousting Jimmy Carter from the White House.
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Quite simply, George H.W. Bush was the price the GOP paid to make the Reagan Revolution possible.
But what Reagan, Republican leaders, and frankly no one in America (outside of Kennebunkport, Maine, anyway), realized was the Bush Family planned on clinging to power like a pope ensconced in the Vatican.
You know what happened next. As Bush loyally plodded through his vice presidency like an obedient lapdog, his loyalists played the long game. Sons George W. and Jeb dutifully went after the governorships of Texas and Florida, respectively. (It took two attempts for Jeb to win; W. got his the first time around).
Next came the first Bush presidency, marked by a brief high (the Gulf War) and overshadowed by an unforgivable political sin: the violation of his “Read My Lips, No New Taxes” pledge.
Then came W.’s lackluster and grossly fiscally irresponsible two-term presidency – which was marked by escalating foreign misadventures, crony capitalist bailouts and the onset of unsustainable fiscal profligacy. From that time on, the family’s fortunes at the ballot box have been waning.
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The younger brother tried a presidential run of his own in 2016. But with a campaign that was almost amateur hour bad (pols still laugh at his campaign logo of “Jeb!”), it stood no chance against the Trump juggernaut.
The Bushes next pinned their hopes on George P. Bush, Jeb’s son, who forsook the Sunshine State and settled in the family’s Lone Star base. When he was elected Texas Land Commissioner, it seemed a new Bush was poised to carry the name forward into the 21st century. But losing the GOP nomination for attorney general in 2022 dashed those hopes.
And that, it seemed, was the end of the Bush Dynasty. But with a resilience Grigori Rasputin would have envied, the family’s political ambitions refuse to die. And right on cue, along comes Jonathan Bush to pick up the banner.
This Bush made his name (and a pile of money) by cofounding and serving as CEO of a health-related tech company. He later created a “Maine for Keeps” nonprofit to address issues such as housing and the economy. And he’s already trotted out a policy plan to restore what he calls the “Maine Vision.”
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The family is rallying around their relative, too. The Bangor Daily News reported that George W. and Jeb hosted a low-key fundraiser at the Kennebunkport Compound for their cousin, which flew under the political radar.
If this latest Bush does run, he’ll have his work cut out for him. As of last Friday, eighteen people have already registered with Maine’s ethics commission for the chance to become governor.
As for the possible candidacy’s impact beyond the Pine Tree State? “Minimal at best, should he win,” one South Carolina political strategist told us. “
“You just don’t hear anyone clamoring, ‘Bring back Bush!,'” the strategist said. “Plus, George W. and Jeb had a position of strength with their states’ large number of electoral votes. Maine’s four electoral votes don’t make candidates quake in their boots.”
And so while the Kennebunkport clan may dream of a Restoration, the rest of America views them from its rearview mirror, when it thinks of them at all.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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1 comment
I could certainly go for some bush right about now!