Returning: Why Jeb Bush will win

{mosads}Now Rome has found its star: Pope Francis, as gentle and humble as his namesake, returning Rome to its root. And today we live in an age of returnings. To Rome and the Church, on aliyah to Jerusalem, to Kate, William, Harry, George and “Downton Abbey.” The 20th century is over. The 21st century has begun, and Francis is its first star. King George is potentially its second. Jeb Bush could be third.

Millions upon millions upon millions come to see Francis pass. And here in the US of A, we are returning as well. To Chris Christie at first, then Jeb Bush because they are what we are or what we used to be. It all seems rigged; Henry Kissinger calls the jolly governor of New Jersey and he is impressed. They even get Barbara Bush to call Christie’s wife, which seemed to exploit the innocent Bush family.

National Review and the neocons — some of them vermin — are of course behind it all; they front with Christie and back with Jeb as VP. Just the same, the Bushes are the “us” we return to when we leave behind Rand Paul, Jerry Brown, Hillary, Lady Gaga and Anthony Weiner. They are where we go to go home, in our American age of returning, even if we are not from there in the first place.

Ulysses S. Grant at the end of his march explains the need for Jeb: “Experience proves that the man who obstructs a war in which his nation is engaged, no matter whether right or wrong, occupies no enviable place in life or history.”

He seems to be talking about those of us, including myself, who opposed George W. Bush in his invasion of Iraq. Bush had the will of the Americans and Congress when he invaded. Every war has a vengeance element as a footnote near the end. This was exclusively about vengeance, just the same. Grant is right.

Of course, the entrenched apparatchiks and Secret Santas of conservatism want — need — Jeb to vindicate W.’s invasion. And they will get him. But not because of them — some of them vermin —but because of Francis.

Jeb Bush is what we, the Boston Irish, who drove the Bush family to Texas, used to call a “good Catholic.” It meant a Catholic man devoted without being feminine. It may all seem rigged to get the Mexican vote as Jeb has Latino family. But that would not have helped until now. Now,Francis brings it home for Jeb. Suddenly, Francis begins to make sense to the others who hadn’t thought of it before. And Jeb is one too, and he is one of us, too.

Suddenly, it is Jeb at the turnstile, waiting. Waiting for us.