In this case, however, its all about perception. President Bush is absolutely disgraceful on this issue, and the public sees that. I mean, for God sakes, he set up a task force made up of business interests to push an amnesty plan! He might as well just come out and say what critics of the Party have been saying for years; The Republican Party is driven by business interests. This is foolishness.
All it takes is for a small percentage of independent voters to fall for the Democrats turnaround on this issue for the GOP to suffer. Do not underestimate how angry the conservative base is, either. There are a good number of us who will vote for a third party in 06 and 08 if Bush doesn't get his act together. And before anybody comes on and says that all I am doing is helping Hillary get to office by voting third party, let me make this clear right now, I don't care so save your breath. I am going to support, as I believe and hope others will, the candidates that I agree with and that share my views.
If the Rats could get a rightist Rat (such as a Zell Miller) to run in '08, he might get a comfortable victory. Consider how close Dubya came to getting ousted, and it was only because Kerry was such a clown that he didn't.
Same goes for me. Things simply are not going to turn around unless we the voters start showing some independence. That is the only thing that'll get these clowns to stand up and take notice.
Principle over party. Since the "leaders" of this country won't listen to those of us who elected them, we'll send them a message that they can't ignore - we'll vote them out of office.
History will be unkind to George W. Bush. He has sold us out.