News of President Bush and the Republican Congress losing support due to increasing anger from the Republican base is all over the Internet today.  This should not be a shock to anyone who actually knows many Republicans… which is likely why our mainstream reporter types just clued in to the phenomenon.  Or maybe they knew but didn’t report it because they preferred to maintain the illusion it was "mainstream" voters deserting in droves, take your pick.  The Washington Post got this one at least somewhat right and reported it this way:

Disaffection over spending and immigration have caused conservatives to take flight from President Bush and the Republican Congress at a rapid pace in recent weeks, sending Bush’s approval ratings to record lows and presenting a new threat to the GOP’s 12-year reign on Capitol Hill, according to White House officials, lawmakers and new polling data.

Bush and Congress have suffered a decline in support from almost every part of the conservative coalition over the past year, a trend that has accelerated with alarming implications for Bush’s governing strategy.

The Gallup polling organization recorded a 13-percentage-point drop in Republican support for Bush in the past couple of weeks. These usually reliable voters are telling pollsters and lawmakers they are fed up with what they see as out-of-control spending by Washington and, more generally, an abandonment of core conservative principles.

The last bit there is perhaps the most telling part in leading to the anger and/or rage I get from other Republicans, "an abandonment of core conservative principles."   That says a lot without being specific but it aligns with what I hear.  Spending like a drunken sailor at a whorehouse is a good part of it of course, but it doesn’t really explain the visceral anger I hear over and over recently.  Recent errors like the Harriet Myers nomination and the Dubai Ports deal did massive harm to the leadership’s remaining credibility.  National security and appointing good judges have been absolute bedrock goals of the Republican base for decades and to see the trust of the base betrayed in such cavalier fashion was eye opening for many.

The final straw that is breaking the Elephant’s back is the outright treachery of our leaders in not defending the borders, and with them the future of our viability as a culture and a nation.  People here (non-latinos anyway) are talking in precisely those terms, in terms of seeing the United States of America disappear and be replaced by just another third world Latino nation.  The process is already well in gear spreading through and now dominating most of the Southwest United States.  I live in Southern California where the decades long deliberate policy of our national leaders to allow virtually unimpeded illegal immigration has turned the entire region into a majority Latino region.  Large portions of California might as well be part of Mexico already.  That’s why the illegal immigrants are so bold in DEMANDING citizenship, because they see the rest of gringo America as weak, unwilling to do hard work, unwilling to enforce the laws, AND unable to enforce the laws.  Why should anyone respect a culture and a people that is collapsing, that has so little belief in itself that it actively refuses to enforce its laws or defend its borders?  Combine that with a historic grievance and other longstanding ill will between the U.S. and Latin America with economic forces pulling people here anyway and you have a strong force for legitimizing this conquest in the minds of the people doing it.  They think they have every right to come here and demand services and citizenship as ‘human beings’, as if everyone on Planet Earth has the right to immigrate to the USA when they wish and be supported here.  Its not just silly to believe that.  Its national suicide to actually do it because we would be swamped by people of foreign cultures who would Balkanize us and destroy the nation we all love and that they actually wanted to come to.

Very few people I talk to are actually angry with the Latinos who have taken advantage of this situation to come here because most admit that if they were put in a similar position they would do the same.  Mexican Nationalism and Latino-USA bad history aside the vast majority of Latinos I’ve known are good like-able people.  But that isn’t the point, the point is that the world has at minimum hundreds of millions of people who would move here if they could who would destroy our culture and way of life if they did show up and not assimilate as is happening now.  Illegal immigration is NOT serving the needs of this nation but rather the needs of foreign governments like Mexico anxious to dump all their extra population on us as a safety valve to prevent widespread unrest for their horrible mismanagement and corruption back at home.

Legal immigration in limited quantities and of people of our choosing serves our national interest.  President Bush and the Republican Congress are failing at their most important duty to the nation:  to defend the borders, people, and Constitution of the United States of America.  What is infuriating Republican base voters is not just that they are failing, but that they are REFUSING to do their duty.  Refusing to do their most important duty.  If the Federal Government will not defend the territorial integrity of the nation then it has no purpose.  Worse than that, if the Federal Government won’t carry out its most basic duty but insists on taking money from us then they have become the enemy of the citizens of this nation and are functionally no different than the Mafia running so-called "protection rackets" while only providing protection against their own violence in service of getting more extortion money.  Is it really that bad?  Yes, it is.  This can’t be fudged anymore, not after recent events made it clear how far down the path of losing sovereignty we already are.

Its intolerable.  Flatly, completely, totally intolerable.  Serious discussion of Impeaching the President for failure to defend the nation is now under way on blogs across the net.  This isn’t funny and neither the President or his remaining supporters should take it lightly.  Much of the Left would like to Impeach the President and if a good chunk of the Right joins them it is possible that a deal could be made to make something actually happen.  The real reasons for Impeachment would be different for each side but some sort of compromise might be worked out for an agreed upon substantive pretext.

Immigration is the most volatile subject currently on the plate, even surpassing terrorism because it includes worries about that on top of worries about losing the future of our very civilization.  If the Republican leadership fails to restore control to the border and insist on enforcing the nations immigration laws then drastic things are going to happen.  Republicans losing control of the Federal Government is one of them. 

None of this sprang up out of nowhere.  The immigration problem has been growing into the vast problem it is now for decades.  Substantial, deepening disaffection and anger has been growing for years as Republican leaders in significant part moved the nation in the exact opposite direction the Republican base wanted, and more to the point did more damage in that direction than Democrats would have likely been able to.  Republicans in power have grown to feel that they have a blank check with the nation because they think voters know the alternative is even worse.  This is the great tactic being rolled out right now by our esteemed ‘leaders’:  you the Republic voter have nowhere else to go even though we are leading in the opposite direction to where you want to go, so shut up, give us a bunch of money, and oh you sure better show up on election day or you will seriously regret it.  I have had people tell me directly that this tactic is flat out extortion akin to being blackmailed, and that on principle alone they will at a minimum not vote for Republicans in November.

Its looking to some Republicans that I know like it is actually worse for Republican and Conservative ideals to have Republicans in control of the Federal Government.  How’s that for a whopper.  Liberalism was advancing before but it was limited by resistance from principled opposition and public skepticism of their wild spending ways.  The wisdom of our Founding Fathers in creating divided government created a substantial break on Liberal expansion of government.  Government spending grew slower under Democrats in recent decades, and heck President Clinton actually enforced immigration laws much more vigorously than President Bush has done since taking office by a vast margin.  That is because Democrats all had to worry about not seeming to be too liberal and keeping the votes of the moderate voters that decide large elections.  President Bush and the Republican Congress has had the opposite pressure actually encouraging them to do Liberal things and they sure have.  Frankly after the initial burst of speeches post 9/11, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the actual execution of the conflict by the Republican leadership has been lackluster at best.  Many would say feeble or outright bad.  Iran, Syria, and North Korea continue to stick their thumbs in our eyes on the international stage and threaten the long-term security of our nation while Marxist governments are once again gaining strength and taking over governments in Latin America with collusion from Cuba.  Its a mess and nobody at this point believes we have the stones to do anything about any of it.

Impeachment or not the coming election could easily be a massive debacle for the Republican Party.  Lifelong Republicans that I know really don’t want to but are seriously considering voting Democrat in November.  Might Democrats mess things up horribly?  Quite possible.  But the President and Republican Congress seem intent on doing that all on their own right now and the evidence is increasingly that it is worse than the alternative, at least to Republicans and Moderates who thought they were voting for limited government that would do more to defend the nation and enforce the laws.

I really don’t want to vote for another party, much less the Democratic one, in the coming election.  But I find it hard to imagine voting for Republican leaders right now because frankly they haven’t earned it.  There are months still to go and the Republican leadership could still take action that shows they meant what they have said in the past and will use their power to enact into law.  Most importantly they could re-dedicate the Federal Government to actually enforcing its immigration and border laws.  The President alone could use his power to do much of this.  They could.  Will they?  It really all comes down to their decisions, then the rest of us will make ours.  Ever hear of accountability in government guys?