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The news from Washington, DC has not been good for the president and his party this week. With his personal approval numbers dipping below 50 per cent for the first time since his election, public support for his signature programs dwindling rapidly and a Blue Dog rebellion among Democrats in Congress, things are not going as planned for Barack Obama and friends.

Yet 'independent' pollster John Zogby has seen fit to opine that it is the Republican Party that may be "teetering on the brink" of extinction, noting that they are "swimming against the tide of demography." Now I may not be an expert on the fine art of polling, but the fact that Nancy Pelosi et al, are trying to push through a vote on so-called healthcare reform before the August recess tells me that they fear hearing the wrath of the people when they descend from their ivory towers and return home.

Still, Zogby does have a point: the Republican Party, in its usual state of inexplicable inertia has chosen to retreat and pander rather than to speak to its conservative base and to those who might otherwise be attracted to it. Instead of trying to draw Latinos and other immigrants to the party by trumpeting the differences between them and the Democrats, they merely show themselves to be weak and meek imitators of same. Add to this the media's long and constant disinformation campaign--that Republicans hate immigrants and minorities--and it must be acknowledged that a problem does exist.

So how can the Grand Old Party stem the tide and attract these burgeoning demographic groups? By getting someone--Sarah, are you listening?--to stand up and say something along the following line to all Americans and in particular to those legally seeking to become citizens:

We welcome all you who have come to these blessed shores in search of a better way of life for you and for your posterity; you who seek the American dream. And guess what? We are the folks who can still see that dream and the ways in which it might yet be attained by those who desire it.

The Democrats have been engaged in the decades-old pursuit of trashing that dream here at home and around the world--indeed, our current president has made a cottage industry out of it. Yet still you come; so your beliefs must be more in line with those who share your dream rather than those who disparage it.

In seeking to undermine the America you came here to find, Democrats are in the process of nationalizing the industries that are the engine of our economic prosperity. Their attachment to socialism--a failed economic system that many of you fled from--is a malady that, if left unchecked, will take us all down. Not content only to go after the industries themselves, they have managed to create a culture that stifles initiative among our young people and others whom they need to keep as second-class citizens, and therefore welcome seekers of government largesse.

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