I beg to differ, my FRiend...when long-loyal voting groups express dismay over a particular issue (i.e. outta control spending or half-baked amnesty-fer-illegals programs), our leaders would be unwise to discount our views. You can label it "complaining" or even "whining", but the outrage over spending has resulted in Dubyuh's revising his spending proposals on non-defense discretionary spending from 4% growth to 1% in less that two weeks. And regarding Bush's proposed de-illegalization of illegals, he chose to ignore this prickly issue altogether in his SOTU the other night. On both issues, the base spoke up about it's outrage, and the political Powers-that-be adjusted their political calculations. IMHO, that's powerful.
FReegards...MUD