If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too? But what if you were a senator and your friend was the president and the bridge was condoning torture?

President Bush is asking his friends and fellow Republicans to follow him off a bridge, and thankfully, not all of them are jumping. Republican senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., John Warner, R-Va., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are among those who are showing that they will not blindly follow the president.

These senators have introduced a bill to the U.S. Senate that is in direct competition with Bush’s proposed legislation regarding the detention of enemy combatants and the treatment they are entitled to during their capture. The senators have the support of many on the left and a scattered few Republicans. I’m pretty sure they have the support of everyone with a conscience.

This support is coming together because Bush wants to redefine what constitutes torture, and is putting the Geneva Conventions on trial by reading between the lines of its provisions. These senators are trying to save Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which, among other things, prohibits “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture… outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.”

We have never needed these provisions as much as we do now. We are detaining and being detained – whether we like it or not, we are at war. If we follow Bush without question, we cannot expect our soldiers to be treated with dignity in the event of their capture.

McCain knows the importance of Common Article 3 all too well. He is a former prisoner of war. But he, along with the other senators, may also have political motivations. The desire to be associated with Bush and his policies is rapidly declining as the November elections near, and as Bush’s popularity drops.

There is a weakness in the GOP’s structure right now, a crack in the levee. So, I propose an attack, or at least efforts at mass conversion.

This is a unique opportunity to reach moderates and convert those on the right who want to get a backbone and do what’s right, not what’s right wing. Sometimes, Republicans, you have to give in, admit you are defeated, that you are wrong, and call off your blind allegiance. And although it pains me to say it, it might even help you get re-elected.

At a time when we are being slapped in the face with admissions of secret prisons, and asked to condone torture, we are faced with only one choice: to re-define the GOP and let it represent all of its constituents, not just George W. Bush.

I’m tired of red state, blue state. It’s too Dr. Seuss for me. We need to work toward purple, or some middle ground, where we can live with the decisions that are being made on our country’s behalf. I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it hard to live with the decisions coming from our far right government.