Affluent folks leaving GOP

[LuckyTheDog]

Apparently, the Republican Party's recent transformation -- into a religious party dedicated to warmongering, creeping authoritarianism and an "Earth is flat" attitude toward science -- is costing it the votes of wealthier, better-educated people:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119518268221495363.html?mod=politics_primary_hs

[saracat]

1. WSJ, Ruperts paper of record.They must be swarmimg to our alleged front runner

, Ruperts media creation, who is pledged to protect them! :sarcasm: But with an element of truth!

[Reno.Muse]

22. good point! They flock to the glory of the Clintons

ka-ching!

[Gman]

2. The GOP is imploding like the old Sands Casino

and people here are worried about planted questions. I've never seen a bigger collection of highly intelligent people being so highly stupid like here at DU in my life.

[Swamp Rat]

7. LOL!

:D

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. That is definitely true here in Kansas

The Republican party is shrinking right before our eyes.

[smalll]

4. Careful. This may not help the Dems.

People who have no one in their social circle who make less than six figures a year aren't exactly loved by the majority of the populace. When the rich join our side, it makes it hard for our side to propose policies that will actually help the average American: reforming regressive taxation ends up as a minor priority, behind things like legalizing gay marriage and banning smoking in your own home. Plus, it kind of gives the liberal elite/"limousine liberal" epithets some basis in reality ("Prius Progressives" I guess we should say now.)

[greenman3610]

6. wait a minute

I'm a prius progressive.
does that mean I'm bad?

[AX10]

9. My father made 150,000 a year during the late 90's...

and he is regular Democratic voter (Always voted Democratic for the Presidency). There are very few Republicans he would vote for. Only on the local level does he do so because he (we) know them personally and they are not right wing kooks like the nuts in Washington.

[Lorien]

12. So did I. Most of my friends also made six figures

The secular ones voted Dem while the Baptists voted repug...but some of the Baptists are coming around after seven years of BushCo. I've been very poor too-as have most of my friends-and I'm poor again after being hit by medical bills and outsourcing. Only those born into wealth or the suddenly wealthy (like Lotto winners) seem to lack perspective. Everyone else knows what it's like to struggle.

[aquart]

10. Right. Turn down that cash because Republicans once touched it.

Gosh, that's a dumb idea.

[Lorien]

14. Rot.

None of the people I know who own a Prius are wealthy. A Prius costs less than the average SUV, after all.Everyone I know-including myself-who has ever made a six figure income started out poor. Some even spent their childhoods in trailer parks, and knowing extreme poverty helped motivate them to work hard later in life. Most people making six figures actually aren't wealthy. Only those making over $450,000 a year-according to BushCo's tax structure-are "rich".

I prefer to judge people on their character and the contents of their hearts, not the contents of their bank accounts. I think that only the most shallow are doing otherwise.

[funflower]

17. So if your boss offered you six figures, you'd say "No thanks, I don't want to be a

Prius Progressive?"

Sure.

My doctor is as welcome to join the democratic party as his cleaning lady. ALL Americans are rich by world standards, so, unless we live in a grass hut and walk a mile to get our drinking water every morning, we ought to get off our sanctimonious soapbox.

"Epithets" are shortcuts for people who are too lazy to think.








edited to fix a typo

[AX10]

5. Fairfield County CT. The Democrats scored some impressive...

victories in the affluent "gold coast". Alot of these people work in or around NYC. Chris Shays is on his way out too. Look around Philadelphia, Democrats control everything in the state and federal legislatures. They also made impressive gains on the local level too. The same thing happened around Baltimore and Northern Virginia. Virginia will be competitive next year.

The GOP has become the party of religo-fascists who want a "death-match" with the other religions of the world. The GOP is extremely dangerous. These people don't want to become impoverished due to job losses or die in a horrific war. These are smart people who know that there is no future with the "party of death".

[Fridays Child]

8. K. Rove said...

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing."

[Lorien]

11. Ms. Williams is a moron:

"She also agrees with Republican criticism of Democrats' economic policies. "Democrats are all for social programs which raise my taxes," says Ms. Williams, who lives in a working-class neighborhood. "I'm not working to pay for people to sit at home watching cable all day.""

Why not ask why Warren Buffet pays a 17% income tax while his secretary pays 31%? THAT'S the GOP at work! Crumbling bridges? Failing schools? High crime rates? Snowballing unemployment? THAT'S aLSO the GOP at work. Like Medicare? Firefighters? Educated kids? Libraries? Those are Democratic programs that your tax dollars pay for. Maybe she'll wake up when her job is outsourced and she's only wishing that she could AFFORD cable TV!

[rodeodance]

13. THIS PART IS INTERESTING --people realizing taxes are needed for infrastructure

While business leaders still generally favor holding down taxes, he says, "Colorado already has low taxes and has always. And we began in the 1990s to start feeling the effects of limited tax support for things like higher education and transportation, which coincidentally became more important as economic-development issues for the business community."

Democrats cashed in on that shift here in 2006, when gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter won business support by opposing stringent tax-limitation measures backed by his Republican rivals. "We found a way to talk about investing in infrastructure that makes sense to the affluent and it makes sense to the business community," Mr. Ritter, now governor, says in an interview.

[bluestateguy]

15. This has been happening since the 90's

In the Northeast and the West Coast, in particular.

[Richard Steele]

16. Bullshit. The only way they'd leave is if they started a new party: "GOP Platinum"

But they ALREADY created that party, and they already belong to it.
Where they gonna go now?

[Perry Logan]

18. If they think that's going to keep them out of jail, they can think again.

[Vinca]

19. It can't help that their dollars are turning to dust, either. nt

[applegrove]

20. Wooooooot!

:woohoo:

[flashl]

21. Could affluent folks leaving GOP be the source of this story?

Democrats wake up to being the party of the rich

For the demographic reality is that, in America, the Democratic party is the new “party of the rich”. More and more Democrats represent areas with a high concentration of wealthy households. Using Internal Revenue Service data, the Heritage Foundation identified two categories of taxpayers – single filers with incomes of more than $100,000 and married filers with incomes of more than $200,000 – and combined them to discern where the wealthiest Americans live and who represents them.

Democrats now control the majority of the nation’s wealthiest congressional jurisdictions. More than half of the wealthiest households are concentrated in the 18 states where Democrats control both Senate seats.