The Democrat in Me.

 

GOP Florida Four  - Caricatures

I’ll be voting in the Washington State Republican Caucus on Saturday. This will be only the second caucus I’ve participated in since I became eligible to vote before the 1984 Presidential election. If you’re wondering, “Why so few?”. You have to remember Washington State is so screwed up politically, and especially in the GOP party they can never seem to decide what they want to do. We’ve had lots of GOP Primaries, combined party primaries, and caucuses. Now its caucuses.

 

I can’t imagine what Democrats like about their party and about Barrack Obama.

 

English: Barack Obama Deutsch: Barack Obama

I really can’t. It eludes me. Why would anyone want to be part of a party whose soul mission in life seems to be to take down the successful, while defending the bad and sometimes morally corrupt behavior that leads to many being unsuccessful (and supported by the successful). I’ve heard Ann Coulter suggest Liberalism is a disease. I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s because they don’t like the Republicans and some of the stupid things Republicans do, not that they like Democrats so much. And I have to admit they’ve got a fair gripe.

 

The most annoying of their gripes is that Republicans are racist. It’s not true. And it’s counter to American History. It was Republicans in the Congress that passed

 

Portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson Deutsc...

Lyndon Johnson‘s Civil Rights legislation over the objections of southern Democrats. It was The newly formed Republican party that opposed slavery and elected Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves.

 

But in today’s world the few racists who are left in this country do tend to find their home in the Republican party versus the Democrats. It’s not reflective of the party as a whole, but it does taint the GOP and I believe prevent more well-intentioned Democrats from voting our way. Until we as a party go out of our way to recruit black votes and show black voters how the Democrats have failed them all these years, while simultaneously making racists uncomfortable within the confines of the GOP this false taint will continue to hover over the party.

 

Republicans greatest sin in the past twenty years was the persecution of Bill Clinton. And it was a persecution. I was no fan of Clinton; never voted for him. But the Kenneth Starr investigation

, United States Solicitor General from 1989 to...

Image via Wikipedia

took years and millions of tax payer dollars and all he came up with was Clinton engaging in marital infidelity and then lying about it at a time after the Special Prosecutor had already been impaneled. It was a waste, it was embarrassing and it was a mark Democrats have held against Republicans ever since.

 

Clinton became President having received ONLY 43% of the popular vote in 1992. And I don’t think Republicans ever forgave him for that. Just like Democrats never forgave George W. Bush for winning the Presidency in 2000 by a mere 243 votes in florida. The Clinton win spawned the irrational persecution of the man. The impeachment spurred Democrat’s resentment. And the Bush narrow win made Democrats completely irrational.

 

I vote Republicans because I believe in smaller more limited government. From this standpoint Republicans talk a good game. But as Democrats correctly point out Republicans had control of Congress and the White House from 2001-2007 and did a lousy job walking-the-walk. They spent like they accuse Democrats of spending. Still, I’d rather have a politician who at least talks about limited government versus a Democrat who has no intention of limiting government. The point is Republicans have been hypocrites and Democrats are right to say so.

 

Lastly, Democrats think Republicans are mean and don’t care about helping the poor. Of course they’re wrong. Numerous studies have indicated that those who identify themselves as being Conservative give a far higher percentage of their incomes to charity, to help the less fortunate, than do those who identify themselves as Liberals or Progressive. And this in spite of Liberals having higher incomes than Conservatives, in recent decades.

 

But Democrats are right in having the concern because Republicans have done an absolutely lousy job of explaining how our positions and strategies and morals are far superior in helping the poor raise themselves from dependency to success. We’ve done a lousy job as Republicans of conveying our belief in our fellow human beings abilities to rise up. We have not property demonstrated how government entitlement encourages individual dependency, and that which the government provides will only keep us ALL poor. No entitlement program will make anyone rich. And none will enable the individuals to grow into more success. Their subsistence programs only. But they’re given to too many people.

 

Still I believe in Liberty. Look it up. I honestly believe most people don’t know its true meaning. If they did. They’d join me at the Republican caucuses Saturday.

 

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

 

If you find this blog interesting. Please share it. TY.

 

 

 

A History Lesson on the Republican Party.

Loved this video and proud to have it on my blog.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

If you liked this blog please share it. Thank you.

CEO’s Open Letter to President Obama – GerriWillis.com Blog – Fox Business

Have you heard this? A billionaire who has signed the Bill and Melinda Gates pledge to give away the majority of his fortune tells President Obama to back off. Omega Advisors CEO Leon Cooperman calls the Presidents rhetoric class warfare and divisive. He basically says Obama’s political leadership amounts to pandering to the lowest moral character among us rather than leading and lifting us above that which divides us. Well said, Mr. Cooperman. Well said.

CEO’s Open Letter to President Obama – GerriWillis.com Blog – Fox Business.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

Bank of America is subject to Capitalism.

Bank of America announced yesterday that it would NOT be going ahead with its previously announced $5 debit card use fee. They say they listened to their customers. Damned rights they did. They listened and they watched a lot of them take their money elsewhere.

The news that BofA wasn’t going ahead with the new fee came after the nation’s largest bank JP Morgan Chase as well as Wells Fargo Banks announced last week that they would abandon plans for these fee add-ons. They saw the writing on the wall and didn’t want to further enrage the public (i.e. their customers).

In an Associated Press article from October 7 it was pointed out that Credit Unions were again reaping the benefits of these new bank fees. The country’s largest credit union, the Navy Federal Credit Union, said new account openings over the weekend  following BofA’s new fee announcement were 23 percent higher than normal. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee says roughly 51,000 people have signed up to move their money out of big banks on “National Bank Transfer Day” this Saturday. They also said 21k of those who have signed up will be moving their money from Bank of America.

Of course abandoning this $5 fee doesn’t mean BofA, or Wells or Chase for that matter, won’t be attempting to pick your pocket somewhere else. In fact BofA already raised its fee for its basic checking account from $8.95 to $12 last Spring. They’re hurting. They need the money. Bank of America’s stock price was down to $6.71 at the time of this writing. That’s from a high of $54.77 five years ago this month, and a post-recession high of over $18.00. Their January 2008 purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp looking increasingly like the wrong thing to do. Old Countrywide mortgage loans are STILL exploding on BofA and on our country.

But the obvious good news with this retraction of the proposed fee and for the time being no new replacement fee is that Capitalism works. This is exactly how it is supposed to happen. And guess what no Government intervention was necessary. 18th Century writer, philosopher and economist Adam Smith had it right in his seminal book The Wealth of Nations when he described the invisible hand that guides a country’s economy. Government needs to stay out and things will work out. It’s in each individual company’s and corporation’s best interest to serve the public, their clients, for to do otherwise will only hurt their bottom line. And growing the bottom line is most important of all.

Anyone with eyes wide open will see that Government interference in the form of the Dodd-Frank Banking Finance law forced banks to impose many of these new fees by restricting how much banks could charge merchants for the use of debit and credit cards (I bet a lot of you didn’t know that we, the business owners, also pay the banks every time plastic is used). Banks, as well as other companies will seek revenues and if government takes away one form of income, they’ll just go elsewhere. And the ones who will pay the real price is the consumer. Thank you again Democrats. Every time you try to protect us we get the shaft.

Nonetheless, take homage in the fact that your outrage moved big bad BofA, Chase, Wells Fargo and others from imposing THIS fee. You the consumer do have choices. You can go to a neighborhood bank or Credit Union you can spend your money elsewhere, or choose not to spend at all. Think of the Occupy Wall Street protesters and their claims of big corporations having way too much control. Let this be their lesson that the big corporations only have as much control as we give them. And the one, and possibly the only thing I’ll agree with OWS about, is that its long past time that we stop giving the big corporations so much power. But we don’t need government to do anything. We need to take responsibility for ourselves, our habits, and our spending.

But, of course, this comes from a guy who’s had his money in a credit union for some 15 years.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.