Bush Loses His Base
by John B. Judis & Ruy Teixeira, The New Republic
Sweat
streams down Terry's face as he pushes a lawnmower up the street toward
his home in Martinsburg, a small town in West Virginia's eastern
panhandle. Middle-aged, balding, and paunchy, Terry used to work in a
local factory but is now on disability because of an accident. Asked
his opinion of President George W. Bush and the Iraq war, he says he
used to like Bush and, at first, he thought it was a “good idea” to
invade Iraq. But he has now changed his mind. “They shouldn't have gone
over there,” he says. “They are killing a whole lot of innocent people.
It isn't worth it. They already caught the guy. They should have gotten
the troops out then.”
Christine,
who works for a government agency, is sitting in her front yard,
overseeing a garage sale. Like others on her block, she has a pride in
the United States flag prominently displayed. But her support for the
troops in Iraq doesn't extend to the war itself. “I don't think it's
been worth it,” she says. “I don't know why we blow someplace up and
then spend so much to rebuild it when we have our own issues over here.
I did support it when we went over. But now I don't think we had any
reason to go over there.” She says she hasn't decided who to vote for
but is leaning toward John Kerry.
Terry
and Christine are members of the white working class–comprising
people, ranging from clerks to factory workers to technicians, without
four-year college degrees. Since 1968, Republican presidential
candidates have relied heavily on these voters to win elections. In
2004, Bush will need to win them decisively to carry battleground
states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Missouri. But he may
not, thanks in large measure to growing dissatisfaction with the Iraq
war. Perhaps no other group's views have changed so dramatically since
the U.S. invasion, and perhaps no other group's mounting opposition to
the war is as ominous for Bush's reelection hopes.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
Blog For Iowa 
Could someone help me to understand why pro live people haven't seen that the republicans are just using the pro life issue as a sure vote! The republican party always claim to be pro life (especially around election time) and yet the have had the majority vote in both the house and senate and have done nothing to make abortions illegal. That would tell something! They use the abortion issue just to get the pro life vote. If they actually passed a law making abortions illegal the republicans would no longer be able to count on the pro life voters. Therefore, the republicans will never make abortions illegal…they just want it to remain an issue for getting the prolife vote.
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