As the Republican Presidential primary heats up, Gov. Jeb Bush has asserted himself as the frontrunner in a crowded race. Despite his family history, Bush presents himself as independent of his family’s legacy, recently calling himself “his own man.” However, the panel of foreign policy advisers that he has assembled suggests otherwise.
His team reads more like a Republican Party greatest hits album than a new direction for the party and the country. In fact, 19 of the 21 advisers that Bush named worked in the administrations of his father or brother. The list features influential Republicans from all ends of the Republican spectrum, from relative moderates to neoconservatives. The advisers also hail from government posts ranging from former secretaries of homeland security and state, to former CIA directors and national security advisers.
Tailoring his administration to mirror those of past conservative presidents will also have many effects on the upcoming presidential race. While Bush’s list of famous conservatives is sure to scare away a certain number of liberally leaning independents, it is likely to score points with the archconservatives within the Republican party, whose support he needs to secure the nomination.
Among the list of influential conservatives that Bush named to his team, one name stands out as truly worrisome: Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz, who has advised every Republican president since Ronald Reagan, gained public notoriety while serving as George W. Bush’s deputy secretary of defense as one of the architects and main salesman of the Iraq war.
Wolfowitz’s hawkish and interventionist brand of foreign policy is the opposite of what the United States needs at this crucial point in its history. After more than a decade at war, the time has come for America to enjoy peace. Transitioning to a period of peace would save the U.S. billions of dollars that could be put to productive use within its own borders.
In order to make peace a reality in the current geopolitical environment, our president must practice restraint when confronting crises. Retaining hawks like Wolfowitz would work against this goal, as he would only make Jeb Bush’s foreign policy overly aggressive if he became president.
While it is certainly important for Bush to surround himself with people that have enough experience to guide him should he become president, surrounding himself with a group of advisers who also served his brother and father makes it difficult for him to argue that he is independent of them. Worse still, by choosing the same advisers as his father and brother did before him, Jeb Bush is signaling that he is likely to make similar foreign policy choices that they did which, to many, is a frightening proposition that may cost him in a general election.