Editor, Times-Union: I spent 25 years in the Republican party. Shortly after George Bush took office, the party began to morph from one of principles and moderation to one of rigid absurdities and eventually outright lunacy. Many of us became shocked at what we were seeing.
By 2003, after the initiation of a war on false pretenses and the insanity of reducing taxes for the hyper-rich and backing off Wall Street so that it could take our money and play its Ponzi scheme/casino operation without supervision, I had enough. The Republican Party had turned into an odd mix and feel of a Baptist revival with fat-cat industry barons, lots of flags and booze. The Christians became the foot soldiers and the corporations the money.
What happened in 2003 was not so much I left the party. The party left me and a lot of others.
So I became a Democrat. I told those in charge I was a Christ follower. I was welcomed as a person of faith. I told them I believe in life from conception to death. I was told there are a lot of pro-life Democrats in Indiana. I learned our party cares about people even after they are born. I joined Democrats for Life, our party’s pro-life wing. I even had a chance to serve on the board with people like Senator Bob Casey from Pennsylvania.
And for me, most importantly, I switched parties because of the enormous assault on the working and middle class in this country. They are the people who have made this country great. They serve in our armies and work in our factories. They drive our goods all over the country. They keep our machines working and produce our never-ending flow of goods. And they are being dumped like yesterday’s trash.
Those of you being assaulted out there know who you are and you know the suffering you are going through. So do we in the Democratic party. You have lost your jobs and homes. You have lost your insurance. You gave your best for the company for years and they threw you out of the factory like a used-up machine. The truth is they treat their machines better than you. You are just an object to them; a way to make lots of money.
The folks at the top are taking home multi-millions and flying around in their Lear jets. You watch the TV at night while you eat your cold sandwiches and cheap soup and you see that the CEO of Hewlett-Packard just got fired. Poor man got a severance package of $25,000,000. Maybe he will sue like the CEO of the New York stock exchange. He got fired a while back and got a severance of $180,000,000. Apparently, he was insulted or mistreated. What was your severance when you got fired or laid off? This is madness.
I realize what I say in this extremely affluent area will not be popular. We have a lot of hyper-rich people around here who are very conservative. That’s sort of the point – conserving the status quo. And many of you earned your wealth with hard work and innovation. You are to be respected. Most of us lawyers are in the top 1 percent with you. But I am just always haunted by the words of Jesus: “Woe to you who are rich: for you have your consolation.” If those words do not shock us into to reality we really don’t have a head, or a heart.
