Years ago, in a joint appearance with Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush struck me as both the more principled and the more pragmatic politician. Unfortunately, Bush seems to be going backwards. He is setting himself up to oppose the Republican base. The problem is that he has met the enemy, and he is Jeb.

This New York Times article is all about how various Bush advisors expect him to stand up to the Republican base and tell people what he really thinks. That’s good, because the Republican base could use some truth telling. Too bad Bush does not seem up to it.

First, let’s get clear about what the Republican “base” constitutes. One way use of the term is to describe those right-leaning voters and activists who are alienated from the Republican party’s leadership and feel that the GOP is often some combination of unimaginative, cynical, self-interested, and cowardly.

But there is another Republican base. This is the Republican base that is made up of most of the party’s major donors, of the Washington business lobbies, of the Republican consultant class, and the political functionaries who shuttle back and forth between working for the lobbies and working for the GOP.

The blind spots and self-destructive enthusiasms of the first, populist Republican base are often mentioned, but the second, elite Republican base has its own blind spots and self-destructive urges. It was the Washington-based Republican base that twice missed the story of Obama’s abortion radicalism and let him get away with posing as a social issues moderate. It was the Washington-based Republican base that decided that the answer to the GOP’s problems on immigration was a combination of up-front amnesty and increased guest worker programs. It was the Washington-based Republican base who thought slogans about how “you built that” could substitute for a middle-class economic agenda (though this particular failing was also shared by the populist right of 2012). There is no sign that Bush is ready to talk turkey to this part of the base. To all appearances, Bush has decided to become the embodiment of this part of the base.

This tendency, to complain about the Republican base while in the bosom of the base, shows up in various parts of the Times article. This is precious:

Mr. Bush seemed to be musing on such an approach last week before a gathering of chief executives in Washington, when he said that a Republican hopeful had to be willing to risk the nomination in order to remain competitive in November. “Lose the primary to win the general without violating your principles,” Mr. Bush said at the event, sponsored by The Wall Street Journal.

As is this:

Speaking last month to a Republican donor, he discussed the difficulties posed by the early states in the nominating process, especially Iowa, where religious conservatives have won the past two Republican presidential contests.

Bush’s comments only make sense if you assume that the Wall Street Journal, the Republican donors, and the Bush family are not part of the Republican base and bear no responsibility for the GOP’s problems over the last eight years. That assumption is as crazy as the nuttiest rant at a Tea Party rally.

Too bad we don’t have a former Republican governor from Florida who is willing to call out the members of the Republican base for their past mistakes and their self-serving delusions.