I do respect much of what Bush has done. His support of the military and actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly facing down the UN and EU are outstanding.
But the Campaign Finance reform legislation, the terrible Patriot Act and many of its provisions, issues regarding securing our borders and now this also give great cause for concern. Particularly this ... such a fundamental right and principle.
I pray to God we can somehow, someday elect statesmen, who go to serve the nation and honor their oath to the Constitution and simply do what is right. We are infested with politicians who are equally mindful, if not more so in far too many cases, of their own political career, their fame, their vices and their own ideology, Constitution be damned.
While we continue to somehow get those true statemen into office, we need to keep at least putting conservative Republican politicians in there to offest the real liberal/socialist/marxist politicians and tyrant wanna-bes ... but unfortunately, we also must continue to hold even their feet to the fire to ensure our constitution the rights it enumerates are not eroded in the process.
As do I. He has done a very good job in these areas.
But the Campaign Finance reform legislation, the terrible Patriot Act and many of its provisions, issues regarding securing our borders and now this also give great cause for concern. Particularly this ... such a fundamental right and principle.
Agreed. A move to the left, either at Flank Speed led by a Demo, or at All Ahead 1/3 led by a Republican, is still a move to the left. Even though I am a registered Republican and have voted as such almost exclusively, I am a conservative and constitutionalist first.
I pray to God we can somehow, someday elect statesmen, who go to serve the nation and honor their oath to the Constitution and simply do what is right. We are infested with politicians who are equally mindful, if not more so in far too many cases, of their own political career, their fame, their vices and their own ideology, Constitution be damned.
I honestly worry that the strategists of the Republican Party seem never to have taken a statistics course more advanced than "Medians for the Mindless". For some time now, I've believed that the model of the electorate as a normal distribution is seriously - if not fatally - flawed. I think a strong argument can be made for a bimodal distribution with a large saddle in the middle.
By taking "moderate" positions in hopes of reaching an increasing segment of voters, I suspect the GOP is actually moving down into the saddle and moving away from the peak where it would find it's greatest support. The GOP's tails aren't endless: as they move to the middle (read:left), they lose votes from the right.
In short, there are a lot more votes to be gained than lost in moving to the right. So far, no one appears to have the guts to explore that in a significant way.