Posted on 05/16/2006 9:24:55 AM PDT by Paul Ross
It's Time for Bush to Listen to His Base
by Michael Reagan
Posted May 15, 2006
A week before he died I asked Lyn Nofziger if the White House was arrogant or just plain stupid.
“Both,” he said.
Nofziger was one of the nation’s most astute political analysts and a White House aide my father Ronald Reagan greatly admired. If you need proof that Lyn knew what he was talking about, you need only consider the White House policies on illegal immigration, which are both incredibly stupid and incredibly arrogant.
Aside from the Iraq war, no issue threatens Republican control of Capitol Hill more than the problem of illegal immigration. The overwhelming majority of Americans are outraged over the problem of our porous borders. People are demanding that the borders be sealed tight against the thousands of illegals violating them.
If the president and the Republicans in the House and Senate don’t act to enforce our current immigration laws and vastly increase border security you’ll have to hire a private detective to find any Republicans on Capitol Hill next year.
"Will they win? I think that's still up to the Republicans," Newt Gingrich told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review the other day.
He added that he agrees with those who believe a substantial number of conservative voters -- upset over unbridled federal spending and unsecured national borders -- could sit out the mid-term elections, giving Democrats an edge in close House races that might otherwise go to Republicans.
"The problem you have right now is the conservative movement -- which is still very healthy in the country at large -- feels very abandoned in Washington," he told the Trib. "Conservatives actually believe in a balanced budget as a moral issue. Conservatives actually believe you ought to control the border as a matter of national security. Conservatives are the people who pay the taxes. They're not the people who get the pork."
He put his finger on the solution. "If you have the White House, the House and the Senate, and if you have the natural majority in the country, you always have the potential to be able to pose the election on your terms," he said.
The president had better wake up to the fact that the only thing he’s got going for him right now is that the Democrats are in absolute disarray. They have no leader, they have no direction, and even with the president down to his lowest point in the polls, as low as he is, the Democrats aren’t much higher due to their lack of leadership.
As a result, the Republicans still have it within their power to hang onto control of both houses of Congress -- providing they stop being stupid, and pose the election on their terms.
The Republicans need to pass two immigration bills immediately. First and foremost the border must be closed, and only after that should we negotiate the other issues, such as what to do about the 11 million-or-so illegal immigrants living here.
In addition the GOP has to alert the American people to exactly what would happen should the Democrats take over the Congress, with all their wild talk about tying the president’s hands with countless investigations and impeaching him in the middle of a war. The people have to be warned about the dangers of letting the Democrats legislate us into cutting and running in Iraq, creating hugely expensive new programs that will require massive tax increases, sabotaging the prescription drug plan now saving seniors billions of dollars, and making Rep. John Conyers chairman of the House Judiciary Committee where he says he wants to hold hearings on reparations for slavery.
It’s time for the president to listen to his base -- the people who put him in the White House twice. He’s lucky that the Democrats have the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean. If they had anybody else but this bunch the Republicans would be flat on their backs.
But because the Democrats lack real leadership and their party is being run by their far-left whacko wing, the GOP has a golden opportunity to exploit the Democrats’ weaknesses and win back their base and a majority of the voters.
Corruption is the fruit of their Bolshevik revolution, just as it is everywhere else the commies ran for a while...
Sorry bud, facts and reality matter - The reality is federal spending today as a % of the economy is lower then the past 30 year average! - Furthermore non-security related discretionary spending has been cut for 5 years straight! (that doesn't mean the Gov't doesn't spend too much on all levels...federal, State and local...but the reality is, it isn't what you are suggesting in relation to GWB).
No Child Left Behind was nothing more then the reality of the demographics of this Country and what the public was demanding (accountability of the public education system).
Medicare Drug Bill? I don't particularly like it (however GWB is pushing for overhauls in private medical accounts which will pay off in the long run) - But if the criteria is 100% approval of all policy decisions while in office... in order to be a true Conservative...then we have had NONE in our history.
I agree, here's all i need to know. Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin agree with the President. Nuf said
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
Three point plan to genuinely please your GOP base:
1) Enforce employer sanctions beginning this week. Really enforce them. Be serious, and effective. We know you can be.
2) Secure the border. That's going to take at least ten times as many guards as you've mentioned. PLEASE HIRE THEM. If we can rebuild a demolished violent country on the other side of the planet after 30 years of a terrorist ruler, we can certainly hire 50,000 more border guards, to preserve safety and freedom right here in the U. S. of A.
3) Then (and only then) discuss guest workers.
Any other order, will not work.
Other than that, keep up the good job.
But if you get this one wrong - none of the rest will matter, because Dems are going to make it impossible. We can all see that. Only you can stop it.
Please fix this. For your supporters. For our country.
God bless America.
Ouch, I sprained my eyeballs just reading that. What tiny percentage of the budget are you talking about?
Shrug it off all you want...but the reality is most entitlement spending requirements were placed on this WH long before they came into office (and the process for reversing those costs takes decades...not years). Which GWB is trying to do for example with private accounts for Soc Sec (though he needs more conservatives elected in the Senate) and with private medical accounts -
Secondly, it is the one area this President can cut without jumping through years of hoops...and he has done just that...cut spending in this area.
Lastly, on the whole federal spending today is lower then the past 30 year average. You don't have to like it, but facts matter and people trying to suggest GWB is spending like no other are simply not being accurate in relation to the growth of this country on the whole.
How is it compared to the Clinton years? You don't sell used cars for your day job do you?
Just keep posting facts, even though there are those here who refuse to accept reality.
Whoops...Michael Reagan....another darned troll out to bash Bush.
Who will be left standing sides Kristol and Barnes?
I feel abandoned a bit here too i might add.
I know everyone is really tore up over that..lol
He's not running again and seems to be thinking of a legacy. Why that includes capitulating to Dems. and making nicey-nice I don't know.
I do know that he should indeed listen to his base.
Any President who doesn't use the veto won't be remembered as great. Any President who defends himself on any issue by first mentioning how much of our money he has spent on the issue won't be remembered as great. Any President whose followers claim he can't push the big ideas through Congress because he is a helpless kitten (even though his party has held both chambers most of the time) won't be remembered as great or even good.
Well, we're going to find out.
I hope you're right, and the Republicans don't crater in November, but I doubt that even Reagan himself could have sold this plan in the present climate. At this point, it's about politics, not policy. And if you don't think a critical fraction of Republicans are perfectly capable of staying home on election day in a snit, well, you haven't walked enough Republican precincts yet.
Marking.
There is no constitutional basis for any federal intrusion into the area of education. That clearly was a matter intended to be left to the several states. The concept that the Federal Gov. would ever have the power to confiscate taxes from our livelihoods and personal labors and blackmail our states with that money was not contemplated by the founders and if it had been would have been expressly rejected. Having some experience with this Kennedy education bill, my opinion is not only does it violate the constitution regarding limitations on federal powers, it is a crock that has severely burdened the costs of the educations systems of the states and is in fact not accomplishing squat in terms of substantial increases in scholastic abilities of the vast majority of our children. Big debates here but if Bush's legacy is going to be measured by this "accomplishment" the verdict is not yet in and clearly no claim of victory is close to being justified.
But if the criteria is 100% approval of all policy decisions while in office... in order to be a true Conservative...then we have had NONE in our history.
Not the right criteria. Even a broken clock is right twice a day (broken sundial may never be right so I guess he does not belong in that camp but I had to think about it...just kidding but barely)..It is clear on illegal immigration, Bush has steadfastly refused to enforce the law much less try to reverse the ever increasing flow of Mexicans illegally infiltrating our country. He has been on the amnesty kick the whole time the border has been being overrun.The real question is why, I have my own suspicions but we should really examine why he has not been as effective as Clintoon (ugh) "was-was" at this. Maybe we should follow the money?
The problem is here you refuse to be either intellectually honest or to give any understanding that good people can come to differing conclusions on how best to solve this 40 year in the making problem - The question I have is why?...though I have my suspicious.
The notion that GWB has steadfastly refused to follow the law is silly - The reality is close to 6 million people have been turned back from our borders in the last 5 years alone (though tremendous efforts) - The notion that our borders are wide open, is completely false as well - The notion that all 12 million illegals have come across the border illegally is false, as a sizable portion of those here illegally now came under worker permits and then never went back (wrongly so....but securing the border has nothing to do with this equation of the problem).
Secondly you completely spin the notion that GWB is for amnesty. When he is not (why must you lie?). Amnesty is what R. Reagan gave in 1986...one minute millions of illegals were illegal...the next minute they were not....with absolutely no requirements.
That is not what GWB is proposing. He is speaking of background checks, mechanisms for assimilation requirements (English, etc)....The reality is we have a temporary workers program that needs to be reformed. We must who is in this country, be able to verify they are still here or not, and locate them if needed. GWB plan does exactly this (and it is sorely needed just as much as our border security is).
The reality is GWB is taking a serious and commonsense look at addressing the current problems with both legal and illegal immigration in this Country. Hopefully the House can do a little of its own tweaking and we have a full and comprehensive reform packaged passed.
I agree Mm62, it is sad that he seems intent on going out this way. GWB has been listening to his critics more than the people who elected him it seems.
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