Yesterday at a party, a banker acquaintance LOUDLY announced he's a Dem.

[NNadir]

I travel in some high level business circles. I suspect that many people like myself have been Dems for a long time, but while I've heard many people loudly proclaim they are Republicans, among the wealthy, it has been a faux pas to be a Democrat. I myself have found myself forced to move subjects away from politics at business meetings, rather than create business problems by getting into personal disagreements. (No: I have never spouted the Stalinist Repuke line just to "get along," but still I have had often had to find graceful ways to change the subject.)

On a personal level, many of my neighbors have actually been unfriendly toward me because of my political signs in this affluent community. I actually received nasty anonymous letters.

Yesterday I was at a party with some neighbors and friends and for the first time in a long time, I saw a banker loudly proclaim he's a Democrat.

Bush et al apparently have not only made it acceptable to be a Democrat, but fashionable.

It's a sad reflection on our country and our business community that it's taken so long.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. As a teacher

I am used to people proclaiming they are Dems. It's the Republicans that surprise me in my field.

[SeanQuinn]

7. Down in SemCounty, we're a bit different.

We've got tons of GOP teachers, with abortion being the key issue. But we also have a few DNCers scattered in, with the principal, his wife, the 2nd grade teacher, the 3rd grade aide, the 2nd grade aide , and potentially the 1st and 6th grade teachers. Not bad.

[liberalitch]

10. But still.... there they are. I teach with a woman whose daughter is...

A recovering addict and whose son is in Iraq and SHE encouraged him to go there.
She took offense that I went to the march with the blessings of our principal..... whose son is also in Iraq.

[rosesaylavee]

2. I have only recently stated openly that I am

a Democrat because the board I answer to is mainly comprised of staunch (whatever that means) RW Republicans. Got tired of hearing Kerry/Edwards jokes last month and I came out of the closet. I very gently said that I voted for them last year. Nuf said, conversation abruptly changed and the room took a 'chill'. Oh well.

This is an historically Republican county in a Blue State and that is how it has always been here since I can remember as a small child.

[greekspeak]

3. My dad's boss is a dem and always has been

He doesn't really ACT like one, but he has even run for office as a dem. He is a hotelier who owns a number of hotels, and employs people at sickeningly low wages. Of late, he has bussed in workers from central America lest the poor people who need those jobs get them and a little bit of money.

Of course, he lost the election because he lives in a district somewhere to the right of Trent Lott. But I did have fun listening to my father gripe about having to work at a fund raiser for former MO governor Holden.

[abluelady]

4. I am "Almost" embarrased for Republicans

I have decided that I am not speaking my mind anymore because it is just too embarrasing to have people I know make fools of themselves in public. Now that won't keep me from dropping a snide remark now and then.

:evilgrin:

[kurth]

6. "Republican" equals "Corruption + Incompetence"

This is a theme that Democrats must reinforce over and over again next year going into the mid-term elections.

[abluelady]

9. They don't see the corruption

but maybe the incompetence?

[GCP]

5. My husband also travels in some high level business circles

He met David Rockefeller in one of those circles. He never hid the fact that he's a left-winger through and through, he's always been ready and able to defend his position and people have invariably backed down or changed the subject.

[wakeme2008]

8. I was SHOCKED to find a Black Female running for Sheriff in Roanoke is Rep

I have been watching the Virginia Gov. race, but there is a local sheriff race where a Black Female was running against a White Male. Silly me because the polictial signs do not carry race to ASSUME she was a Dem. WRONG... today's Roanoke paper listed the parties these locals belong to.... Big fat R after her name... :grr:

[seabeyond]

11. 8 bumperstickers on car and not a word

i go to the country club, or the neighborhood of the school for my boys, and not a word from a single person. i have taken to wearing a big sterling silver peace sign necklace and nada. keep waiting for someone to be offended, outraged and not happening. and i ceretainly dont keep mouth shut. if i have a way to diss bush in conversation i do, and no argument

this is the very red panhandle of texas

[Deja Q]

12. The business "community", ultimately, cares only for money and profits.

That's what business is about.

I am an artisan, an artist, and helper of people. I just want to do good things. Beauty and helping mean more to me than money. For that alone I am a pariah in our world as they made it.

[NNadir]

13. Actually, some business people are human beings.

To paraphrase Shakespeare:

"I am a Businessman. Hath not a Businessman eyes? Hath not a Businessman hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a artist is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?"

Believe it or not, but many people in business are, well, people.

I note that few Americans were resisting Bush in late 2001 and throughout 2002 and 2003. Many of us were, but most, weren't. The man was, incredible as it may seem, popular and not just among businessmen.

The business world, is indeed more conservative than the artistic world, or the academic world, and certainly more repressed, I think. I am only noting the presence of a positive trend, that being a Democrat has become respectable in even the most conservative of cultures.