My grandfather was a die-hard Republican. As a child, Bouncy

[CC27]

rateyes (16,665 posts)

My grandfather was a die-hard Republican. As a child,


he took me to all manner of GOP rallys. I won't forget 1968 getting nearly front row seats to hear Nixon. I remember meeting Winfield Dunn, Howard Baker, Lamar Alexander, and, yes, shaking hands with Ronald Reagan. Nevertheless, my dad was a good union man (Teamsters) who only voted with the Democrats. He always said that the Democrats were the ones who stood up for the working man. FDR was his hero.

Back in the 60s and 70s, one could count on the Democrats having the working man's (and woman's) back. But all of that started to change dramatically around 1988. Bill Clinton jumped on the bandwagon with Newt Gingrich to weaken regulations and unions. He signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall, setting us up for the Great Recession. My Teamster dad lost half the value of his retirement accounts, as did I. And the government decided to bail out the corporations instead of helping out those of us who really paid the price for that.

I was excited to vote for Obama in 2008. He talked about not being beholden to Wall Street, and helping out Main Street. But the first appointment he made for Treasury Secretary was someone whose whole career was spent propping up Wall Street. He had to be carried kicking and screaming to nominate Elizabeth Warren to head up the CPFB. He negotiated away the public option that would have made his Affordable Care Act truly affordable.

Now, he is promoting yet another trade deal that will cost Americans millions of jobs, just like NAFTA and CAFTA did.

On top of that, he holds the distinction of being the longest serving war-time president...quite a distinction for a Nobel Peace Prize winner...Guantanamo Bay is still open, serving as a recruiting tool for terrorists around the world.

My soon to be former party is now readying itself to nominate who is not the devil incarnate, but who is quite a distance from being the friend of the working stiff. She called the TPP the gold standard of trade deals. She sat on the board of anti-Union Wal-Mart. She became a millionaire giving speeches to the very firms who stole the money from our 401ks and IRAs. She refuses to tell us what she said in those speeches, but you can bet it wasn't "cut it out" because they haven't and keep sending her campaign contributions.

As Secretary of State, she followed the advice of Kissinger. As a Senator, when voting on whether to give Dubya authority to go to war, she trusted him over those of us who knew better.

Her private email server, which she did not have permission to have in her basement, was unsecured and probably hacked into.

My grandmother once said of my grandfather, "if Adolf Hitler were running for president on the Republican ticket, he would get your grandfather's vote."

Well, I have come to the point in my life where I can no longer, in good conscience, support a Democrat simply because she is a Democrat. When the nominee shows the ethics of Nixon, the economic policies of Reagan, the foreign policy of Kissinger, and trusts the judgment of Dubya in matters of war and peace, it's time for this once proud Democrat to bid adieu to the party.

I am, as of this moment, an independent liberal, who will work his ass off to elect people up and down the line who have the working man and woman at heart, regardless of whether or not they have a (D) beside their name.

Good luck to all. We are going to need it

Your teamster dad lost half of his retirement money because of mafia payouts and democract pet projects. Cool story bro.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027890789

[Chris_]

tl;dr

[landofconfusion80]

You never lose money on investments if you don't sell low and keep up a spread. Another helpful tip from your financial advisor, landofconfusion

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[thundley4]

Back in the 60s and 70s, one could count on the Democrats having the working man's (and woman's) back. But all of that started to change dramatically around 1988.

Unions have been their own worst enemy by voting for democrats. Democrats support more things that hurt unions and other blue collar working people than any party that exists.

The Democrats have convinced you fools that if something is bad for business and corporations, then it is good for workers. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Everything that hurts corporations and businesses will eventually trickle down and hurt the workers.

That is the true "Trickle Down" economics.

[freedumb2003b]

Unions have been their own worst enemy by voting for democrats. Democrats support more things that hurt unions and other blue collar working people than any party that exists.

The Democrats have convinced you fools that if something is bad for business and corporations, then it is good for workers. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Everything that hurts corporations and businesses will eventually trickle down and hurt the workers.

That is the true "Trickle Down" economics.

Until robots unionize, that is:

[I_B_Perky]

Unions have been their own worst enemy by voting for democrats. Democrats support more things that hurt unions and other blue collar working people than any party that exists.

The Democrats have convinced you fools that if something is bad for business and corporations, then it is good for workers. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Everything that hurts corporations and businesses will eventually trickle down and hurt the workers.

That is the true "Trickle Down" economics.

I agree. At one time the moderate dems outnumbered the communist dems. Not anymore and haven't for many years.  The unions would have been smart to buy into the republicans as well as the dems... unfortunately for them their leaders were all in bed with the big city liberals, lining their pockets and the results are plain to see.  Same with socialist Berniebots.  It all works well... for a while.  Eventually those at the top line their pockets while tossing crumbs to the masses until it all comes crashing down.

Pretty sad if one thinks about it from a long term historical perspective.  The only ones that ever seem to get it in the ass with no vaseline are the little people.

[98ZJUSMC]

    Oh ......... my ........... gawd....   

Honestly, retards?  You spend 85 percent of your miserable lives coming up with this slop?

Find employment. 

[98ZJUSMC]

I agree. At one time the moderate dems outnumbered the communist dems. Not anymore and haven't for many years.  The unions would have been smart to buy into the republicans as well as the dems... unfortunately for them their leaders were all in bed with the big city liberals, lining their pockets and the results are plain to see.  Same with socialist Berniebots.  It all works well... for a while.  Eventually those at the top line their pockets while tossing crumbs to the masses until it all comes crashing down.

Pretty sad if one thinks about it from a long term historical perspective.  The only ones that ever seem to get it in the ass with no vaseline are the little people.

Moderate Dems:  The original low information voter.

Everything that hurts corporations and businesses will eventually trickle down and hurt the workers.

You ..... might want to re-think that sentence, (D)oUche.

[RobJohnson]

What a dumbass, the Teamsters supported Reagan.

[BlueStateSaint]

What a dumbass, the Teamsters supported Reagan.

IIRC, the Teamsters supported Republicans pretty well, until an enterprising US Attorney by the name of Rudolph Giuliani put a few of their leaders in Federal prisons.

[J P Sousa]

The DUmmys always forget history;

  The AMT was created in 1969 over outrage that 155 high-income households making over $200,000 at that time didn't end up owing any federal income tax. That $200,000 would be worth $1.3 million today.

The problem is that the so-called "wealth tax" today can end up hitting all sorts of people in the middle class and upper middle class.

http://money.cnn.com/pf/money-essentials-taxes-amt/
 

In 1969 DEMOCRATS passed this idiocy.

[RobJohnson]

Unions have been their own worst enemy by voting for democrats. Democrats support more things that hurt unions and other blue collar working people than any party that exists.

The Democrats have convinced you fools that if something is bad for business and corporations, then it is good for workers. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Everything that hurts corporations and businesses will eventually trickle down and hurt the workers.

That is the true "Trickle Down" economics.

Some unions are starting to catch on:

The Democrats’ Green/Blue Divide
http://www.city-journal.org/html/dem...ide-14450.html

 Blue-collar union leaders—already furious over the Obama administration’s scuttling of the Keystone XL pipeline and Hillary Clinton’s vow to shut down the coal industry—took another hit earlier this month, when the Democratic Party announced the formation of For Our Future PAC, a voter-turnout initiative in partnership with billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, who has long waged war against projects that the trade and construction unions hoped would create jobs. The New York Times portrayed the reaction to Steyer’s involvement in the new $50 million super PAC as a “rift between labor and environmentalists” within the Democratic Party, but that’s nothing new: trade unions and environmentalists have long been at odds. The real news was that much of the rest of the labor movement—led by public-sector unions—had agreed to work with Steyer, highlighting the ever-widening divide between blue-collar labor groups and their public-union counterparts. That split has already driven some trade unions into the arms of Republican candidates, and may account for some of the support Donald Trump gets in polls from working-class voters.