The Bush shrug o’ doom — ‘Stuff happens’

When asked about the recent shooting tragedy in Oregon today, in which nine people were killed and seven others wounded, former Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush seemed dismissive of tighter gun regulations, approaching a level of philosophical erudition superseded only by Nietszche himself when he mused, “stuff happens.”

We’re in a difficult time in our country and I don’t think more government is necessarily the answer to this. I think we need to reconnect ourselves with everyone else. It’s very sad to see.

But I resist the notion—and I had this challenge as governor—because we had—look, stuff happens, there’s always a crisis. And the impulse is always to do something and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.

A fatalistic view indeed. So, to summarize: “stuff happens” and in response to stuff happening we should resist the urge to “do something” and instead, do nothing. What a great president this guy would make. Fortunately for us, he seems to be barely hanging on and is a distant third or worse in most polls.

Here is what the current president had to say:

As I said last night, this will not change until the politics changes and the behavior of elected officials changes. The main thing I’m going to do is I’m going to talk about this. I’m going to politicize it. Inaction is a political decision we are making. Normally politicians are responsive to the views of the electorate. The majority of the American people think it’s the right thing to do.

[Photo credit: © Brian Snyder / Reuters]