Republican Elite vs. Republican Voters

Now that the Republicans are out of power in Congress and President Bush is a lame duck, the Republican base doesn’t seem to feel the need for party discipline.

So when the Republican Party elite presented the Republican voters with a comprehensive and mandatory omnibus immigration bill we all upchucked, encouraged by our friends the talk-show hosts.

Why not?  There was no point in good manners and obedience.  Our guys aren’t in power any more. 

You can tell that Queen Victoria is not amused about this.  Sen. McCain (R-AZ) has talked about “my friends,” always a dangerous sign, and Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) has opined that talk radio is running America.  “We have to deal with that problem.”

Oh goodie, says talk show host Michael Graham:

Sen. Trent Lott has seen the enemy, and he is us.  Well, actually: me.

But let us have some compassion and sensitivity for our august Republican leaders.

What the reckless Republican base is demanding is quite over the top.  It is demanding accountability from the government.  It is demanding that before we give the government the right to amnesty 12 million illegals they should prove to us that they are controlling the border.

The effrontery!  Why, government has never been subjected to accountability like that before!  It’s unprecedented!  There’s no accountability on Social Security.  There’s no accountability on Medicare, or on VA hospitals.  There’s no accountability on education. 

Why in the world would people suddenly get the idea that we should hold the government accountable on border security?

You can see why the Sen. Lotts and Sen. McCains of the world would be upset.  They didn’t get where they are today so they could take directions from a bunch of talk-radio hosts.  They will, at a pinch, subject themselves to the agony of appealing to the voters once every six years, but enough is enough.

It’s almost enough to get a solon to give up politics in disgust.  Almost.

Something tells me that in all this sound and fury the political plates are shifting under our feet.  Or, if you like:

They’re changing the guard at Buckingham Palace
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.

As the song goes. But who knows who will be on guard after they have changed it. It won’t be all nice and jolly like the song.  Probably the GOP will have to go into the political wilderness for a while and do some hard thinking.

But that’s ok.  As they said about the buboes of bubonic plague during the Black Death:  They need time to ripen.

And the buboes of the welfare state aren’t going to go away.  They will be there when we get back.