Former Florida governor Jeb Bush—whose immediate family is probably one of the most multicultural in high-profile politics—took his GOP family to task yesterday, as he often does, for what he believes are its shortcomings when it comes to attracting Latinos.
Specifically, according to The Miami Herald, Bush said: “The future of our party is to reach out consistently to have a tone that is open and hospitable to people who share values,” adding that the “conservative cause would be the governing philosophy as far as the eye could see—and that’s doable if we just stop acting stupid.”
Bush made that point yesterday in Tampa at a side event meant to highlight prominent Hispanic GOP politicians at the Republican National Convention.
The former governor and a full-time crusader for more school choice and other mostly conservative-leaning education policies, highlighted the rapidly changing face of the America.
His own marriage—to wife Columba, who is originally from Mexico—and their youngest son Jeb Bush, Jr., who is married to a Canadian woman of Iraqi descent, represents the future of the U.S., he said, where inter-racial and inter-cultural marriages are increasingly common. He pointed to his 10-month-old granddaughter as a prime example of the blurring and merging of ethnicity and culture through marriage.
When she fills out her U.S. Census form, he said, “it will have so many hyphens that she’ll say ‘not applicable,’” The Herald reported.