Other Columns by Christopher G. Adamo
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Washington has been shaken by the recent Rasmussen poll indicating that a significant portion of Americans would support a third-party candidate for President in 2008. Perhaps most alarming to Washington's current "ruling class" is the fact that such rampant discontent with the likely choices of either major party for President Bush's successor is also reflected in the polling data indicating public disgust with the entrenched members of Congress as well.

Most assessments of the poll attempt too deep (too "nuanced" if you will) of an analysis, and thus miss the basic point it highlights.

Ultimately, the Rasmussen poll shows that it is conservatism, hated by the Democrat insiders and abandoned by fearful Republicans, that is missing in Washington. Moreover, a truly conservative agenda would most certainly attract grassroots Democrats more than Republicans as it did in the 1980 and 1984 elections of Ronald Reagan.

Then, as now, they are not drawn to the "light-beer" version of liberalism advocated by GOP "moderates," but to truly conservative alternatives.

Reagan benefited from "crossover" voters, not by presenting himself a cheap imitation of Democrats, but by offering a real alternative to the "business as usual" climate in Washington. Even the presence of John Anderson, the "moderate" third party alternative in the 1980 race, did not take votes from Reagan, but from the perennially insipid incumbent, Jimmy Carter.

Americans are daily confronted by a host of impending crises, and they are aware that those inside the Beltway are fixated on achieving the best looking posture, but have no intention of making the difficult decisions necessary to truly address each situation. Yet like the terror war (the only national emergency about which it can be said that the government acted decisively and effectively), Americans recognize that platitudes and wasted money will not indefinitely delay the grim consequences of inaction.

Alarmingly, the two issues that best illustrate this are reaching "critical mass" at virtually the same time. In the past few weeks, Americans have borne the bitter fruits of both the criminal negligence of those in charge of protecting the nation's borders, along with the lack of a worthwhile energy policy, and the consequent skyrocketing of gas prices.

Monday's mass protests by open borders advocates, while hardly crippling the country as their planners had hoped, nevertheless demonstrated the presence of an increasingly coordinated and belligerent army massing within this nation's boundaries. Aided and abetted by a Mexican president who claims an inherent right to the resources and wealth found here, this multitude holds no allegiance to our country or its heritage.

And as this force gains power and organization, its leaders seek to summon its clout on an expanding basis, in order to alter the political and social climate to their own greatest advantage.

Yet instead of admitting to the true nature of the crisis and dealing forthrightly with it, those in government charged with upholding the integrity of the nation and truly preserving its Constitution are still attempting to tap-dance their way around the enormity of the invasion, and steadfastly avoiding consideration of the magnitude of response necessary to truly secure the nation.

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