I teach politics at a small state college. In one of my classes I have a student, solidly left-of-center on policy issues, who is simultaneously a hard-core Republican voter.
This guy had twenty-some years in the Marines. He's enormously pissed off at the impact Iraq has had on military recruitment, and derisive of the neo-cons who put us on this path.
He's critical of GOP domestic policy, especially the way they whore for large corporations; he thinks private SS accounts are a sham; he can't understand why Bush doesn't do something about the deficit; he thinks people should be able to join unions, and on and on.
He would never think of voting Democratic.
The Democrats, he says, are in disarray. They don't know where they want to go or how they will get there.
It seems that my student is part of a trend. Chris over at myDD the other day commented on the recent poll that shows Bush losing support accross a range of policy issues. Yet public approval of the Republican party is going up.
This is why I can't sleep at night.