GOING SOUR ON THE GOP

The President's poll numbers continue to plunge. The reason, as I have said in the past, is not because the people that hate him have suddenly seen a huge upsurge in their ranks but, rather, because the people that used to love him have grown sour on him. Conservatives are swelling the President's disapproval numbers, and the increasingly bad numbers for the GOP-led Congress, as well. First, the President did poorly in responding to Katrina. He started slow and stuck too long with seemingly incompetent managers (a lot of Conservatives never liked the idea of a Department of Homeland Security in the first place, and I, for one, still don't understand why Chertoff has kept his job). Then, he started throwing money at the problem, too much for Conservatives, not enough for Liberals and Lousianans. Next, the President stuck his finger in the eyes of Conservatives on immigration. Combine that with the frustrations concerning the war in Iraq and, sooner or later, Conservatives began to remember all the things they don't like about how this President, this Congress, and this Administration have handled all sorts of issues since the beginning. Shall I list the bad ideas? Since it is my blog, sure I can.

Campaign Finance Reform - Joining with those who would regulate political speech, even after he said he would do no such thing.

No Child Left Behind - A massive expansion of Federal interference in the public education system, when most Conservatives would rather see the Department of Education abolished.

The Bush Doctrine - Conservatives love the words and the concept, but deplore the fact that the Administration doesn't seem interested in putting it into action.

The Guest Worker Program - Most Conservatives absolutely hate the idea. I, for one, am getting tired of the failure of the President, the Congress and all the rest to really put teeth into our current border enforcement efforts.

Federal Spending - It continues to go up and up and up. For this, we need a GOP Congress?

All of this, and more, has been piling up in the collective minds of Conservatives over the last six years. Now, as we look ahead, most of us are wondering how it could be much worse if the Democrats were in charge. After all, Bush would still be in the White House and a Democratic Congress might give him the chance to give that veto pen of his some work. For the first time in my life, I am seriously considering not voting this Fall (as I can't vote for the Democrats). Why should I vote for a party that doesn't take my views seriously enough to at least try to put them into effect as matters of policy?

I haven't decided on that, as of yet. Stay tuned.