>>the 800 pound gorilla in the living room is that we are in Iraq but 5 years after 9/11 we still don't have a handle on our own borders...<<
You got that right. I voted, and I voted Republican, as I always do. And I voted for Bush twice.
That said, I wish someone on our side would ask the President, "Mr. President, do you believe that your idiotic, pigheaded stance on ignoring our borders has affected the outcome of the election in any way?"
About the stance on control of our borders -
There is a small, driven minority in this country, independent of any political party, that has as their objective something like the European Union encompassing all of the North American and possibly Central American nations, as one large customs union, to be followed with political union. There are a couple of relatively indigestible parts, with seriously incompatible legal and linguistic differences, that right now make this sort of union not practical.
The idea of this minority, however, is to throw the borders open NOW, and force the change more rapidly than it would or should naturally come. But with these open borders, there have also been some chaos and a considerable amount of abrasive confrontation.
Are you ready to be tri-lingual? Because the Spanish-speaking or French-speaking minorities of Mexico and Quebec are not at all ready to learn English, or at least pretend to be unable to learn. How about Spanish or French law codes that are incompatible with our own American version of English law?
I voted republican also...voted republican since Reagan...people need to ask themselves how the Republicans took power....just read the contract with america from 1994...9/11 was a failure of our lax immigration policies and we've done little to fix it since...look at who heads immigration right now...cronies...it's a joke and everyone knows it...tie this in with every other product you pick up is made in China ....i hear people talk everyday...not political wonks like me...but everyday folks...maybe this shakeup is a good thing...we will have to see how the Pubs respond..if they swing left then i may get hysterical!! ;)