The Final Straw?

Well...I'm growing very close to finally saying I have completely given up on George W. Bush. I have stood behind the president through some serious debacles. The war in Iraq has been mishandled but that doesn't change the fact we can't just run away from that region and leave that country in chaos. But, as I have said before, it is being mismanaged by this administration. Katrina...not really the president's fault but, once again, it did reveal incompetence in the administration.

I have sat by while he has expanded government spending and the government in general. I have supported him even when I questioned some of the administration's policies. Up until 2001, conservatives would be more likely to call for the abolition of the Department of Education rather than pass some sweeping legislation like "No Child Left Behind." But Bush demanded "No Child" and the Republicans delivered one of the poorest pieces of legislation ever...and yet I stood behind the president...uneasily.

When George Bush attempted to nominate Harriet Myers as Supreme Court Justice, I was livid. But I was patient and the president eventually nominated a very worthy and successful candidate to the court.

I moved beyond all that but it's time to admit that I am breaking away from this administration when it comes to this immigration proposal they are backing. It's not that I am breaking with the White House on immigration, but that the White House is breaking from me and most conservatives in this country. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future.

The White House doesn't care about the conservative base in this country for the simple fact that the problems of this administration are so many that the base cannot begin to solve them. For some reason, the White House has decided to break ties with the base and is doing so with the most dangerous of rhetoric. Instead of working with the conservative base on an immigration bill, Bush has decided to take the position that opponents of his bill "don't want to do what's right for America." Senator Lindsey Graham, backing the President, has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up."

As the heat continued to rise, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed. Then Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism." And the President has gone on to suggest that opponents of his bill are uneducated and ignorant.

I oppose the immigration bill because of the ramifications of creating a permanent underclass of 12 to 20 million Americans...requiring illegal aliens to turn themselves in, return to their home country, prove they worked in this country on some untested merit point system and then be given citizenship and pay back taxes and penalties. And yet, while we try to get this unskilled workers citizenship, we refuse citizenship to highly educated, American-taught people who end up taking their knowledge to other countries. We refuse the best and brightest in the world but want to provide citizenship to fruit pickers. What is wrong with that picture? And at the end of the day, this bill doesn't fix the most serious problem of all...border security.

More people are paying attention to immigration reform than most issues. And they are passionate about stopping illegal immigration into this country. If Republicans want to kill the conservative base, they will stand behind the White House and help pass this bill. But they are opening the door to their demise in 2008.