Welcome! May 10, 2011March 24, 2017 FIVE PROUD MINUTES Take them to see what’s been accomplished as a result of your helping to elect the President – here. Especially the last minute of the clip. Ralph Sierra: “And How about Obama on ‘60 Minutes’ last night? He made me very proud to be a Democrat. ” NOT-SO GRAND OLD PARTY Meanwhile, the opposition party has been opposing rescue of the American auto industry (GM reported a $3.2 billion first quarter profit), opposing creation of a bipartisan budget deficit commission (after they killed it, the President established the Bowles-Simpson Commission by executive order), opposing health care for children, opposing credit card reform and a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, opposing equal pay for women, opposing equal rights for gays and lesbians . . . voting to end Medicare, to protect the tobacco industry and – last week – to continue tax breaks for Big Oil. (Exxon made $30 billion last year; does it really need a tax break?) This is the party that wants further tax cuts for the wealthy even as it – rightly – decries the enormous, future-jeopardizing National Debt that its own last three presidents racked up. I’m not trying to back my Republican friends into a corner . . . just to suggest that until they get their party back, they are hugely welcome to identify as moderate Democrats – who favor small government and personal choice (keeping government out of the bedroom and the doctor’s office) and competent government (how can a party that disdains government do a “heck of a job” at it?) and science (so we install a Nobel Prize winning physicist to run the Department of Energy instead of a Secretary who – as a United States Senator – called for it to be abolished) and balanced budgets (like the ones the previous Democratic President achieved and the ones the current Democratic President is working to achieve). As DNC Chair Joe Andrew liked to say, “We don’t care whether you’re white or black or brown or purple – you are welcome in the Democratic Party. We don’t care what religion you are or how big your bank account is – you are welcome in the Democratic Party. We don’t care whether you walked in here or rolled in here, whether you’re first generation American or a Mayflower descendant – you are welcome in the Democratic Party. And we don’t care what gender you are or what gender you like to hold hands with. So long as you like to hold hands, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.” To which I would add: the stock market does better under Democrats than Republicans. Welcome! And as I said at the top, see what’s been accomplished as a result of your helping to elect the President – here.