November Backlash: Will GOP Lose Big?
by James Buchanan
The GOP appears to be already preparing for a loss in November. Why else would they have just passed a bill that OKs torture and which tries to give George Bush a “free pass” from prosecution under the 1996 War Crimes Act? Bush didn’t have any real worries about being prosecuted for war crimes as long as the Republicans controlled the House and Senate. That control is looking increasingly uncertain as the November 2006 elections draw near.
The Iraq War has been an albatross around the neck of the Republican Party. It was the single biggest threat to Bush’s reelection in 2004. More than a few political experts have speculated the GOP only survived the 2004 election because of massive vote stealing by electronic voting machines, which gave Bush an extra five percent of the vote compared to exit polls.
The Democrats appeared to meekly let the 2004 presidential race be stolen from them. Only slowly did they recover and begin tackling the issue of paperless voting. A variety of websites such as www.blackboxvoting.org and commondreams have covered the electronic vote stealing issue. Perhaps the strongest mainstream article was written by Robert Kennedy Jr. who displayed a detailed knowledge of the problem. Thankfully the laws have been changed in many states so that a majority require a paper trail in 2006.
The Republican Party has had its reputation badly tarnished by a massive bribery scandal involving Jack Abramoff, which sent Randy Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney to jail. Add to that the unpopular and unnecessary war in Iraq. And the last minute pro-torture vote, which could easily cost the Republicans five to ten percent of the vote in November.
As if this isn’t bad enough, Republican Congressman Mark Foley was recently exposed as a sexual predator who sent suggestive Gay e-mails to teenage boys. Even worse is the fact that the Republican leadership KNEW about Foley and were all set to cover up for him and let him get elected to another term. Foley however was exposed in the mainstream media and promptly resigned, leaving the Republicans scrambling to find a replacement. The Republican leadership is now trying to explain why they didn’t do anything about Foley.
The only positive thing the Republicans did before the 2006 election was to propose a bill to make illegal aliens felons, which the House supported, but the cowardly Senate couldn’t stomach. In a last minute move, a bill was FINALLY passed to build a border fence. The fence will stretch for 700 of the 2,000 miles along the Mexican border. (One comedian joked that this is what happens when you let George Bush do the math.)
Still, the construction of a serious border fence is an important first step and psychological move. Even more important was that George Bush’s lunatic Guest Worker Amnesty idea was left out of the bill. Perhaps someone was finally able to explain to Dubya that any kind of amnesty bill for illegals would be suicide for the Republican Party.
Will a partial border fence make up for torture, the Iraq War, the threat of a war with Iran, secret prisons and the generally incompetent, bungling and arrogant George Bush regime?
If the Republicans get clobbered in November, it’s time for them to take a good, long look at the neocons, who are responsible for all the negative things that have made them unpopular. It may also be time to consider a populist candidate like Patrick Buchanan, who has long said the illegal alien problem is the most important facing America.
All politics is local and there is nothing “local” about the Iraq War or the problems of the Middle East.