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Did George Bush kill the GOP.or was it a suicide?
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This is an interesting election year.the Democrats are attacking the Republicans, and the Republicans are attacking the Republicans! Many GOP insiders are essentially writing off the 2008 election year, some of them are even hoping for a massive defeat to give them a reason to retool the party. So what happened? Granted, George Bush is the most unpopular President since Richard Nixon, and Iraq may be the worst foreign policy decision an American President has ever made. Add to that a stumbling economy and $4 a gallon gas and it's no wonder the Republicans are in trouble.but is that the whole problem? Not by a long shot. There are two ways to lose the faith of the American people, one is to promise much and do little (voters hate that), the other is two promise much and do the opposite (voters REALLY hate that). The Republicans did the latter. George Bush repeatedly said in the 2000 campaign that his administration would not engage in nation building (a reference to the Clinton administration's intervention in the Balkans and Somalia). But instead of keeping that promise, he invaded Iraq (Richard Clarke said invading Iraq after 9-11 was like invading Mexico after Pearl Harbor) and is now engaged in a massively expensive nation-building effort we'll be paying for for years. (A prediction.your taxes will go up over the next four years no matter who wins the election.we've been running the country, and the war.on a credit card). The Republicans also ran on a "morality" platform, against abortion, against gay rights, and against whatever made the Christian Right uncomfortable. Well, Americans consider themselves a moral people, Democrats, Republicans and Independents.they know right from wrong and usually make the right choice. But they don't like being preached to. That's especially true when they see the former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, admitting to an extramarital affair.a Republican senator arrested for lewd behavior in an airport bathroom.and there was Congressman Mark Foley who quit after allegedly sending explicit sexual message to male pages. And the tragic case of Duke Cunningham, the San Diego Congressman now sitting in a Federal prison for taking bribes from defense contractors. Americans can forgive mistakes, we all make them.but the Holier than Thou attitude goes down hard when chased by broken promises. And the very core of the Republican Party is the promise to control government spending. But according to the CATO Institute "President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation- adjusted spending since LBJ. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years." Bottom line? When Republicans look in the mirror in 2008 they see Democrats. When Democrats look in the mirror they see a chance to reclaim government.at every level. |
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