Who is Jeb Bush?

In today’s modern political climate, a political candidate is not a candidate unto himself (unless he’s Donald Trump). He, or she, is a brand, a conglomerate of special interests looking to influence national policy. As has become obvious to all, politics is no longer about principle, integrity, liberty, or vision. So what is politics about? Politics, if I had to define it today, is the for profit peddling of political pull, sold to the highest bidders and to those with an already established record of political pull themselves.

Jeb Bush is a god among men when it comes to this particular game of thrones. Think of all the men and women that worked for Jeb Bush’s father and brother, looking to re-sink their claws back into the federal bureaucracy and legislature, where the real money is to be made. Think about all the lobbyists for foreign countries and companies who know exactly what to expect from another Bush-Family Presidency, comforted that the risk to reward ratio is certain to fall in their favor. Wall Street and K-Street, familiar with Jeb Bush’s inner-circle of political operatives can be certain that no administration would be friendlier and cheaper to their interests than the Presidency of Jeb Bush.

So, when I ask, who is Jeb Bush? I am not asking for answers such as, a former Governor of Florida, or the brother of George W. Bush. When asking who a candidate is, we are asking specifically whom is invested in this particular candidates brand or company. The vast majority of Jeb Bush’s campaign dollars have been raised by a Super PAC Right to Rise. The Jeb Bush candidacy and Right to Rise are the same. Lee Fang of The Intercept has published a detailed documentation of who Right To Rise really represents; though it is important to remember that the vast majority of donors do not have to be published. The interests that follow are only the ones we know about.

Agents for foreign governments fall under special transparency rules, meaning several have already had to disclose their donations in filings with the Justice Department. Ignacio Sanchez, a former trade official for President George W. Bush, is a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia. Sanchez gave $5,000 to Right to Rise on February 17, the same day that George Salem, another lobbyist retained by the Saudi government to influence American policy, gave the group $10,000. A day later, former Sen. Don Nickles, R-Ok., now a lobbyist for Wal-Mart, ExxonMobil, Taiwan and the Republic of Korea, among other clients, gave $5,000 to Right to Rise.

Glenn Youngkin, managing director of the Carlyle Group, the investment firm that owns Booz Allen Hamilton, gave $10,000, according to a disclosure statement posted on the company’s website. Because Carlyle manages pension fund money, the company faces special campaign finance requirements.

Although Bush has not named the donors giving to his PACs, certain donors, including state-level PACs, are obligated to disclose on a different schedule. These disclosures show that Florida politicians have dipped into their own campaign funds to support Right to Rise. The Florida Conservative Leadership Fund, associated with state Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa, gave $5,000 to Bush’s Super PAC in February. Among other Florida PACs, Growing Florida’s Future chipped in $25,000, Liberty Florida gave $5,000, and the Treasure Coast PAC gave $1,000.

Right to Rise donors also include longtime Republican moneymen in Florida like Mel Sembler, a real estate tycoon who fundraised for Jeb’s father and brother, and is also known for bankrolling anti-marijuana advocacy.

Right to Rise events provide another way of identifying Super PAC donors — through their hosts. Right to Rise has held fundraisers, with some asking for as much as $100,000 at the door, at a breakneck speed. In New York, private equity heavyweights Lewis Eisenberg and Henry Kravis sponsored a fundraising dinner for Bush. In the Bay Area, venture capitalists Bill Oberndorf and Bill Draper have hosted Right to Rise events. At the Right to Rise’s luncheon in San Francisco in early April, we identified Ron Conway, an investor to Twitter and Facebook, making his way into the event.

A major fundraiser in Washington, D.C., was hosted in part by a number of corporate lobbyists, including Microsoft’s Ed Ingle and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Tom Collamore, according to an invitation. The Sunlight Foundation hosts an invaluable database of such invitations.

Now we are getting a better idea of who Jeb Bush really is; but the brilliance of the Bush Campaign isn’t merely its’ ability to raise money. The real genius is in how they’ve begun to spend it, purchasing your local Republican Party leaderships and bosses.

Filings from the Federal Election Commission already point to an aggressive attempt by Bush to share the wealth with influential Republican politicians, some of whom are likely being courted for campaign endorsements. FEC disclosures show that the Right to Rise PAC has given at least $5,000 each to PACs supporting Reps. David Young, R-Iowa, Frank Guinta, R-N.H., Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y, , John Katko, R-N.Y., Martha McSally, R-Ariz., Barbara Comstock, R-Va., Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., Crescent Hardy, R-Nev., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. In February, Politico reported that Right to Rise also gave $120,000 to various GOP state committees, including state party funds for early primary states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and Florida.

The Jeb Bush campaign is funding the GOP State committees in early primary states. Brilliant! My recommendation to Ted Cruz and Rand Paul is that they should pull their resources and start buying off Republican politicians and party bosses in Virginia as soon as humanly possible if they want to stand a chance in this State. We already know these party officials are for sale – in fact, that is the dirty little secret about modern government that we refuse to acknowledge. All these politicians are for sale. That’s why they are in politics in the first place – to sell their political pull to the highest bidders.

That’s why it doesn’t matter whether a Democrat or a Republican is serving you in Richmond or Washington D.C., unless they are one of a handful of men like Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, Justin Amash, and Thomas Massie, they are in politics to get rich. The more power the federal government has, the more these politicians have to sell! I hope, Virginia, that you are getting wise to the games these politicians are playing. It is not an accident that in 2010 you sent a wave of Republicans to represent you, and nothing happened. Then again, in 2014, yet another wave of reinforcements to make damn sure the Republicans had the power to act – still NOTHING.

The one thing we average Americans haven’t done, is to recognize that voting for a politician doesn’t gain us their loyalty or respect. We have to buy them; and damnit, if that is what we have to do, then that is what we ought to start doing. The problem is, that we will never outspend Tom Collamore and the Chamber of Commerce. We’ll never outspend the lobbyists for the Saudi Princes. We’ll never outspend Wall Street and K-Street and Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes.

MORE RIGHT TO RISE DONORS

Jeb Bush is only as principled and conservative as his donors. Plain and simple. End of story. If we let a small group of elites all across the world and across America, purchase, through the Jeb Bush Candidacy, the White House, we will have failed horribly. But failure in the face of the kind of odds we’re up against isn’t something to be ashamed of. The only question we can ask ourselves, is how hard are we willing to fight and how much of our own money are we willing to spend?