Look at posting #47 (very lengthy) on the Free Republic link. I found myself throwing out 50% of the items as either being irrelevant (i.e. “Promoted Road Map to Peace in Israel”) or unclear as to whether any real success had happened.

However, among the other 50%, I often found myself saying, “Yeah, I had forgotten that Bush did that.” When we only list shortcomings, it does tend to lead to a loss of perspective. I cannot stomach many of the things that Bush has done or said, but I do need to keep the complete picture in my memory when deciding how to vote.

I find that emailing Senators and Congressmen on specific issues gets more attention, and will hopefully be more productive, than threatening not to vote for Bush on a website that he and his advisors do not read. My representative is a member of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, but even he needs to hear that I am backing him on these things, that he is not swimming against the tide of his constituents’ opinions. One of my Republican senators needs to hear the same thing, along with a gentle nudge now and then, while the other needs to be encouraged to stop being a career politican RINO (viz. Senator John Warner).

I’ll second Mr. Coleman’s last paragraph. Traditionalists awaken.

I notice that Mr. Coleman suggests writing letters to Congressmen, not to President Bush, apparently conceding that letters are not going to sway Bush.

I found the tone at the Free Republic thread heartening because I had had the impression that the Free Republic types would be automatic Bush supporters like the people at lucianne.com. The resistance they’re showing to Bush’s leftward course is a sign of life on the right, and that resistance, in one form or another, will be heard at the White House.

This is not to put down the idea of writing to Congressmen. My understanding is that when they receive a lot of mail on a particular issue, they are influenced by that.

I agree with Mr. Auster over writing to the President and thank him for the reminder. I acted foolishly by neglecting to write the President for over a year. I’ll remedy that right away.

Not only do I think it is more productive to write Congressmen than President Bush, but I have less fear with the Congressmen that they will turn my email over to John Ashcroft. :-)