I'll take the party that loves the common man and woman.

I am a registered Democrat. I don’t always agree with everything the Democrat Party stands for. However, I generally vote for middle class values and benefit for the greater good. Sometimes putting my own wants and wishes aside in order to promote the common principles of the Democratic party.

What I do not promote are hot button issues. Such things are destructive to the common goals of good community values. Narrow interests are counterproductive.

None the less, I would vote independent but my states voting laws limit the independent voter. Therefore I am a Democrat. However, from 1966 to 2002, I was a registered Republican. Voting four times for Ronald Reagan. Twice in California for governor and twice for President. I also voted for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. All of whom would not know today’s Republican party. Nor would they be nominated as Republican Presidential candidate. Possibly be seen as too liberal and socialist.

So what happened to the Republican party? Money, money, and money narrow interests. It is now a party controlled by the likes of the Koch Brothers, Steve Wynn, Donald Trump, and dozens of billionaires. All bent on furthering their empires. Mostly by changing laws to their satisfaction. And, this is accomplished by buying the best congress money can acquire. Unfortunately, money votes. Money and it’s progenitors are anonymously protected by law and the supreme court. Money can vote without proper I.D. While tens of thousands of older, poorer, and disenfranchised people have to prove who they are and buy a state ID. Paying a poll tax.

But anyway, I am a Democrat by necessity and not necessarily by choice. My former party abandon me. I still hold fast to most conservative principles. But the conservatives have abandon their principles. Shifting far far to the right. Leaving me holding an empty bag. Therefore, I will gladly vote for President Obama and the Democrats. However, if the Republicans ever come up with a moderate candidate I could support, I just might vote for her. God save us from our stupidity. Amen.

Hey! Can we all send our savings to the Cayman Islands?

It was back in the early 1980s when Ronald Reagan required all savings banks to report interest made on personal savings accounts. Reporting it to the Federal Government and requiring all accounts to show the savers social security number. Making all accounts accountable and responsible for taxing purposes.

Prior to that time, savings and interest that was garnered was largely reported voluntarily. Leaving the tax payer to file taxes on a honor system. A system not regulated before Ronald Reagan took office in 1981.

Since then all savings account had to be attached to a savers SSN number and all savings banks had to report all interest made on personal and business accounts that would be reported on the savers Social Security Number.

So, the Internal Revenue Service would already know what interest you and others made on your bank accounts. So if your interest numbers didn’t show the same as the IRS’s, you had answers to give to the IRS agent.

Now, to the very rich, this was problematic. How was the wealthy saver to save money without paying large sums of money? Thus was born the “Off-shore” savings and investment account. Swiss bank accounts, investment accounts in the Cayman Islands, and other hidden off-shore accounts. All there to hide and savers money and thwart any tax paying requirement. Resisting paying American taxes. And, unfortunately for the United States, losing much needed tax revenue. Thus shorting the operating budget of the United States.

So, if you are rich and need to hide your money legally, send your American made money to an Off-shore account. It’s secret. It costs the investor very little to hide the money. And money stashed away in an off-shore account avoids paying American taxes.

It’s nice to be rich and avoid paying taxes but it takes money that is otherwise used to protect and secure the rich investor. Money used to train and field an American Army, firemen, policemen, coast guardsmen, and others that make the rich investor safe and secure. Thus realizing how good it is to live in the United States. Therefore, most rich live in a safe land on a free ticket to ride. Just make your money and send it to a secret place. Kind of like Hobos riding on a freight train. Riding free and clear. Just don’t get caught.

You guys are no longer qualified to run.

What do former Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush have in common? All were Republican? All were born in the United States? All were World War II five star Generals? All were movie stars? All were former vice presidents? Well. So far some of this is right.

Answer:
Here is what these respected Republican gentlemen have in common. Today in the severe conservative atmosphere, None of these Republican icons would ever be nominated for president by their own Party. Using the severe conservative criteria, not one of these former presidents would qualify as a Republican presidential candidate. At least not with today’s far right orthodoxy.

Here’s why. All have raised taxes. Two were Pro choice. None reduced the size of government. All had big spending programs. President Eisenhower had created the national Interstate Highway system. Spending billions of dollars building a vast Interstate highway network from border to border and coast to coast. All the while, putting to work tens of thousands of Americans to work on the huge road project. And guess what? Done with taxes.

Ronald Reagan raised taxes and gave amnesty to many undocumented foreign workers. Plus also offered forgiveness to Viet Nam draft dodgers who fled to Canada.

President G H W Bush, raised taxes after promising to not raise taxes. Remember, “Read my lips?”

All would fail to pass today’s conservative litmus test. Not enough lockstep with the party. They would be severely accused of being too Moderate. Maybe being accused of being too left leaning. Certainly not conscientiously following the party strident dogma. Consequently, all could never be considered for nomination representing the Republican Party in the November presidential election.

I wish the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls would stop evoking the names of these former respected presidents. Especially since today’s Republican Party is completely far right of the former presidents. It just adds to the candidates hypocrisy and their disregard for the afore mentioned statesmen and their individual conservatism. Why do the Republicans do this to themselves? They just paint themselves into a corner with a pit bull.
God forgive us all and God bless America.

I knew Ronald reagan and quite frankly you are not Ronald Reagan.

If Ronald Reagan were to reincarnate himself and return to the office of the President, all the TEA partiers, libertarians, far right fundamentalist, and all extremists to the right would be horrified of Reagan’s moderate and compromising politics. They totally ignore Reagan’s tax increases he signed in the 1980s. The far right has ignored his compromises with congress.

My point here is I wish the Rightist would stop invoking the name of Reagan and stop using his name in vain. The far right fundamentalist Republicans has obviously not read Reagan’s history and politics. So, just stop-it! Your invocations of Reaganism as being parallel to your own are obscene and completely false. Just stop your vain comparison!