My Declaration of Independence

Senator James Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party on May 24, 2001, when he could no longer reconcile his beliefs with the policies of the party he had supported his whole adult life. "Looking ahead," Jeffords said, "I can see more and more instances where I will disagree with the President on very fundamental issues." In "My Declaration of Independence," Jeffords explains the issues that led to this dramatic break. Foremost among them was the Bush Administration's and the Republican leadership's failure to recognize the need to invest in education, now and in the future. Tracing the genesis of his decision, Jeffords describes his attempts to effect change within his party, and the pain of hurting Republican colleagues and friends. His decision came just at the moment when his defection would deprive them of the Washington trifecta they had recently achieved -- Republican control of the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. It was also going to cost many of his friends committee chairmanships they had acquired only a few months before. "But in the end," he writes, "I had to be true to what I thouJeffords, James M. is the author of 'My Declaration of Independence' with ISBN 9780743228428 and ISBN 0743228421.