Judge for yourself from the video and full transcript here a couple of days ago when Jeb insisted he isn't going to change what he believes if he decides to run for president, but it's plain as day to me that he has already flip-flopped and wants this conservative thing both ways, just like his brother did and just like his father did, because he's basically an open borders libertarian who doesn't want to go to the trouble of lifting up existing Americans to fill the "skills gap" and instead wants to bring in the best and the brightest from abroad to take those jobs:
"WE HAVE A LOT OF PROBLEMS THAT COULD BE SOLVED IF WE FIX A FEW BIG THINGS AND IMMIGRATION IS ONE OF THEM. SO LONG STORY SHORT, IF I WAS TO RUN, I WOULD TRY TO PERSUADE PEOPLE. I'M NOT GOING TO CHANGE WHAT I BELIEVE. AND MY BELIE[F]S, [I] THINK, ARE GOOD SOLID, MAINSTREAM CONSERVATIVE THOUGHTS."
Flashback to February 2012 here when Jeb Bush sought to distance himself from conservatism, his own and its then-current expression in the Republican presidential debates:
"I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I'm wondering, I don't think I've changed, but it's a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people's fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective and that's kind of where we are," said the former Florida Governor. "I think it changes when we get to the general election. I hope."
---------------------------------------------------------------
So in 2012 we have this incoherent jibber jabber that it was totally acceptable to "change for the general election" but he hasn't changed a lick even though he used to be a conservative but in 2014 it's not acceptable to change and Jeb Bush is all transparency and light and hasn't changed a wit don't you know (except he used to be a conservative), and if anyone's changed it's them, those fake conservative demagogues, and vote for me because I'm what I've always been, blah blah blah.
For Jeb Bush conservatism is exhausted by three things in the interview: reforming what's broken, limited government and liberty. Nothing there about preserving anything valuable which exists or what those things might be or how they got that way, or how people in this country who have perverted liberty into license are supposed to be capable of limiting the government when they can't, and won't, control themselves.
And evidently it also just comes down to consistency, which is the hobgoblin of libertarian minds.
It haunts him still.
