Mad as Hell and Not Taking It Anymore

This is what you call a clue. The Republican National Committee is not getting the donations from the base that they have enjoyed in the past. The drop off is as much as 60%. Why? People are tired of the stampede by politicians toward amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"Last year, my solicitations totaled $164,000, and this year the way they were running for the first four months, they would total $100,000 by the end of 2007," said one fired phone bank solicitor who asked not to be identified.
There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, another fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call "amnesty" for illegal aliens.
"Everyone donor in 50 states we reached has been angry, especially in the last month and a half, and for 99 percent of them immigration is the No. 1 issue," said the former employee.

Unfortunately the Republicans remain clueless. Rather than take the hint, the Republican National Committee has fired all of its phone solicitors. Shooting the messenger will not make people vote Republican. The problem with the party is they sacrificed foundational principle for the "big tent". Now they have a party that stands for nothing. The only vestige of the party's conservatism are the incessant references to Reagan by candidates looking to fool the base. In light of such spinelessness one has to marvel at their dogged instance on conferring rights and privileges to people who are breaking the law to remain here.

Situations such as this do not exist in a vacuum. An organization that routinely caves in on its principles doesn't risk the anger of their base without some perceived benefit. In this case I see two very real possibilities. The most obvious is the prospect of new voters the politicians can buy with giveaways. If this is their thinking they are just plain fooling themselves. The Democrats are more dedicated to populist socialism that the Republicans couldn't begin to compete. The other less obvious is the crippling fear of the impending collapse of Social Security. All attempts at solving this problem have been half hearted, inadequate and demagogued by the Democrats, so rather than fight it out with the Dems the issue has been swept under the rug. Sucking FICA from 12 million illegal immigrants would hold off the inevitable long enough for all the current members of Congress to live out their status and privilege without having to deal with this issue.

A new phone system and more polished solicitors won't end the anger over amnesty. Firing the politicians and replacing them with vertebrates would go a long way to regaining a majority in Congress. Never happen.












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