"There were certainly “bad” elements of Bush’s presidency -- the deficits, the spending, the federal response to Katrina, and so forth -- but to suggest Bush was a “bad” president is wildly presumptuous in my view and impossible to know at this point in time" Such sloppy logic as well as moral confusion. Sure he did all of these "bad" things, but if given enough time and enough historical revision, people wont know all the bad things but only the cherry picked and misrepresented "good" things.

Your taxes are going up for numerous reasons, and as you admit "partially" from "illegals". If you think other States aren't facing tax increases, then you are fooling yourself. Immigrants are simply a distraction for the constant growth of the state. You want to argue against the welfare state, I'm with you, but if its only cause you don't want it to go to Mexicans then we part ways.

"We have a right as Americans to determine the criteria for granting citizenship." What moral claim grants you the power to control property that is not yours? Do you "own" the US territory? I don't. And since no one person rightfully owns all property, a majority vote doesn't make a just claim for controlling what is not rightfully theirs.

Am I supposed to shudder at the thought of these "criminals" that are crossing the border to pick lettuce and clean dishes and cut grass? Sorry but we have hundreds of thousands of laws on the books and everyone of us violate several in a lifetime. We're all criminals in the eyes of the State.

"They lived in a progressive state, attended schools similar to those across the country where self-esteem was given, not earned, and still turned out to be monsters…well, you see where this is going." Yes. Its going full retard. Lets take a variable that is shared by the vast majority of individuals and then claim causation of a miniscule number of criminal acts. Brilliant logic, Mr. Hunter. Don't stop now, make the case for that devil Rock n Roll corrupting the youth while you're at it.

"It would have been much cheaper than what we as taxpayers are paying now for their support." Really? So the huge police expansion, the reduction in labor, productivity and revenue, the legal penalties to businesses would be "cheaper"? Sorry, not buying your vision of East Berlin.

My "Messiah"? So wild assumptions are considered intellectual discourse around here? Let me tell you a secret: everyone who criticizes Republicans is not a liberal.

Which shows that your definition of "competent" and "incompetent" differ only by a few degrees.

"but for the Ist six years of his presidency many of us enjoyed a bit of prosperity" That was called a bubble. Though Bush was not the cause of it, he, like most politicians, attempted to benefit from it rather than curtail the Feds policies.

Sad how conservatives feel some need to worship politicians, considering they pay so much lip service to small government and individual liberty. It makes sense that liberals glorify the State and its actors, seeing how they put government on a pedestal ideologically. Bush was a typical president: pandered to the public, acted contrary to campaign rhetoric, increased government power, burdened the citizens with greater debt and stirred up international tensions causing untold deaths.