This immigration bill, and the way that it died, reveals a lot of interesting changes in our political system. Ever since Bush-Chaney took office and their NeoCon philosophy became clear, the Republican Party has truly been split in two pieces. For one thing, Bush campaigned on "no nation building",yet in the name of bringing Democracy to the world, he decided to do just that in Iraq and Afghanistan. In that whole debacle, the national debt has risen dramatically. A primary Republican philosophy is fiscal conservatism...so a lot of Republicans/ Conservatives find it difficult to associate with Bush's ideas. Yet, as President, Bush has a lot of control over everyone who calls himself a Republican - and thus the "old Republican Guard" has been arm-twisted to support Bush's agenda. The newly elected Republicans can see that Bush is taking the Republican party down the wrong path - and found a in this immigration bill a chance to buck the Bush Republicans. In essence they are bring the Republican Party back to its old roots again.

At the same time, we see the "old Guard Democrats" supporting the same old government give-a-way programs that hearken back to the Lyndon Johnson "War on Poverty" era. I think this extreme social Democratic program is also starting to die. I do believe most Americans support some sort of social safety net for those citizens who, for some good reason, cannot support themselves. But programs like never-ending welfare for able bodied workers and amnesty for illegal aliens is overly generous. I recall that the American people were not happy with the package of pork that the Democrats attached to the supplemental spending bill that funded the Iraq War.

Times are changing; ideas are changing. We have seen the new generation of Republican who watched as Bush destroyed a lot of the good-ole-boys network that used to insure reelection to anyone who voted with the party. I think we will see a new kind of Democrat emerge as well that supports social causes to some degree, but is not willing to just use government money to raise everyone's standard of living.

When you consider that only 30% of the American people supported the Immigration Bill, the fact that a bunch of Senators and Congress members still tried to pass that crazy, jumbled bill shows you how many legislators are hopelessly out of touch.

Hopefully this marks the start of a new era where legislators start using their brains to vote, and stop following only what the "party leaders" think.

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Hobo
Charter member of 'Republicans Who Hate Bush" Club