Posted on 06/01/2007 5:41:16 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
However, now I do not feel alone. Peggy Noonan has a new column up in the Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal. She has clearly said what has been getting me down. I think I knew what was up, but couldn't put a finger on it. I knew it centered around the immigration debate, and the way our congressional leaders are behaving. That sentiment especially includes Mr. Bush too, but when I read this column, I felt like Charlie Brown yelling at Lucy at her Psychology booth when he yells, "That's it!" when trying to identify why he can't get into the Christmas spirit.
Try this clip on for size :
The White House doesn't need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don't even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.
For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.
But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."
The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said,
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
I believe that the first step has to be a total shutdown of all borders and coasts. That isn’t too much to ask of as high tech a nation as this one is.
A realignment of our national forces should be in order. The “National Guard and Coast Guard” should have that assigned duty, and should have it as their primary mission. It should be under the DOD. (Homeland Security should be merged into DOD.)
The Active and Reserve components should be our heavy fighting forces. A lessened GI bill for the “national/coast guard” would be something I’d support, since it involves patrolling our border.
The fence should be both a physical and high tech barrier. Detainees should be immediately transported across the border at the point of the border closest to their capture.
Another thing that has always puzzled me is the lack of almost any defense from the White House on a host of things: wmds in iraq, al qaeda connections, libby/plame, biased media, etc., etc.
One has to wonder if they were incompetently incompetent or intentionally incompetent.
We waited so long for the secret Rove other shoe to drop that it became obvious that there was no other shoe.
-—Another thing that has always puzzled me is the lack of almost any defense from the White House on a host of things: wmds in iraq, al qaeda connections, libby/plame, biased media, etc., etc.-—
Being defensive about these things would move them to the right and they don’t want to move to the right.
The fence must be built from the Texas coast to the California coast.
I propose jail terms for employers who are found with more than 5 illegals on their property. More than 5 would be prima-facie evidence that they were knowingly breaking the law, just as writing a check when you do not have funds to cover it is evidence of intent to defraud.
The same should be done for landlords who have more than 5 illegals in any given building.
Things must be made so hot for illegals that they will deport themselves.
I want illegals driven from this country, by force if need be.
I think that those of you who immediately jump the defense of the President, and condemn the emotional steam letting that is going on in the forum and talk radio do not understand what is happening with the conservative movement.
For years we’ve had to keep our mouth shut. Defending the President even through garbage like Medicare boondoggles, No Child Left Behind, Campaign Finance Reform, Harriet Miers, accusing us of “not wanting to do certain jobs”, appointments of unqualified cronies to important positions, and so forth.
Most of us do not feel President Bush is “one of us”, EXCEPT for the War on Terror, which has trumped all else for most of us. The Supreme Court appointees have been great as well, but unfortunately we saw cronyism in full display with Miers.
And then he had the gall to perform a Clintonesque lecture TO HIS OWN BASE. When he doesn’t have the guts to do that with his opponents on the left.
Ms. Noonan was 100% correct. We have felt like a gaggle of battered wives. This is just one beating too much.
As I said here (at quite a bit of length)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1843061/posts?page=22#22
I think this is mostly a matter of President Bush’s governing style. He really believes that in most cases, “turn the other cheek” is the best way to eventually get what you want. I wish I could agree, sometimes. The only two reasons I could even fathom supporting Rudy are that I believe he would really continue prosecuting the WoT properly and that I believe he would REALLY strike back at his critics - which would be a change I would love. As I said in that post above, though, I have to admit that President Bush’s approach may well prove more effective.
Bush can kiss my hairy butt. I’ve supported him against all odds but this is the last straw! I am not “unpatriotic”, he’s unhinged and this one thing is going to destroy him if not us.
Uh - those were rhetorical questions :)
DUers and Pelosi and Murtha and Alquaeda couldn't have asked for a better gift-wrapped election. It's as if the Bush and Clinton families had signed a secret pact to go into Iraq after WNDs they knew weren't there in order to assure the final transistion to the USSR. Tax cuts, Alito, Roberts, etc....these were allll part of the conspiracy to pull us in so that they could cause the conservative base to revolt before 2008!
I thought I'd throw some red-tinfoil out there.
That’s interesting since Duncan Hunter is talking about it and he is actually running.
I am more loyal to America than you are times one million. Shame on you.
Radix: Thanks for your reply. I hope you read that part of my post that states my opposition to the bill. I also have been supporting Duncan Hunter from well before he announced his run for President.
I’m glad you stated that there’s no reason to hate anyone over this. Hate is dripping like molten venom from most threads now.
As to your simple point about what’s so hard to comprehend about the key word, ILLEGAL, I’ll say this. We need to get things in the right order. A border fence and other measures to secure what needs securing. After that, there’s a problem with what to do since untold millions of people are here who came illegally, originally. I think that’s the part that truly flummoxes those who have come up with this bill. There’s the additional need for some type of regulated work permits going forward, and what would the details of that be.
They can’t seem to grasp that no matter those connected, troubling issues, they need to do the enforcement until people can see with their own eyes that the government is trustworthy to do it. Until then, the rest of their talk and bill crafting is just pouring salt on a hemorraghing wound.
Peggy Noonan thinks the war was wrong? Maybe she has disdain for the base.
Keep posting. We can all use the reminders.
The immigration bill is bad.
Peggy Noonan is a dope.
I just wanted to tell you that I have loads of respect for you, even though we disagree about this issue.
I at least, know you ARE a patriot. Regardless of the rhetoric flying about.
Thanks for the hard work!
Libkill:
It meant the same thing as “unpatriotic” in YOUR mind and plenty of others I see. It didn’t mean that to me and plenty of others.
He just created one of his backwardly constructed sentences and blurred his own true meaning. If you give it time and perusal, without the noose tightened around his neck to hang him already, it’s not hard to see where he misspoke. He left out the part where he needed to say that in his deeply held view, the bill he supports is the right way to handle illegal immigration, so if the bill goes down to defeat it will be done in by those who refused to do what’s right for Amrica (IN HIS VIEW OF WHAT IS RIGHT).
Let me be the first with breaking news. As incredible as it seems to you and others, Bush actually believes in this approach. He doesn’t even like every detail in the bill, but overall he thinks it will make things better for everyone. He genuinely believes that and is worried at the prospect of failure. How I wish he had stated it that way, instead of the way he did.
But to claim that he actually views us all (I’m against the bill, too) as unpatriotic is just goofy, and is only happening because people have become unhinged over this subject. IMO
Since Bush and friends have demonstrated that they are capable of such abandonment of basic principle, I now question everything Bush has done since 2000... Including the war.
Further, I question why it is that a Conservative forum (not a Republican forum, mind you) should be home to a daily thread where criticism of the President is prohibited.
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