The wealthiest person you know and their political affiliation

[Opusnone]

I have a friend who is a SWJM who is worth millions and is a progressive Democrat.
His problem is that he's become rich by doing many "messy" things and has become very ill. Upon his death his local synagogue will be even richer.

[AX10]

1. Did these "messy" things make him ill?

If so, what were they?

[Opusnone]

2. No, years of hedonistic living made him ill

And the "messy" things involve legal, though risky, playing with other people's money.

[SmokingJacket]

3. I know a scion of a wealthy, repub family who seems very liberal to me.

I always assumed he was a liberal because of his views, but to be honest I haven't spoken to him lately and who knows what he does in the voting booth?? Many millions of bucks, though.

The other rich people I know are all repubs. :(

[Greyhound]

21. When I lived in Hollywood I knew quite a few self-proclaimed liberals

that are rich (although most of them are really cheap and abuse those around them), but outside NYC and the entertainment industry, all the millionaires I know are hard-core Re:puke:s that couldn't care less what happens to us, the country, or the world, as long as they can keep getting richer and pay less taxes. :(

[fasttense]

4. The rich people I know use to be repuplics - real republics

not neocons. They have since switched and are voting Democratic. I know some middle class neocons and they still worship at the bushes altar.

[jannyk]

5. I know a gazillionaire who's also a Liberal

He made his $$ through DNA research - absolute brazillions of bucks.

My husband and I would be considered 'wealthy' by some (not in the gazillion or brazillion league 'tho) and we are both Liberals. Our money is self made (my dad was a welder - my husband didn't have one). We worked very hard and made a few good real estate investments along the way and accumulated not a mountain of it, but a nice little mole hill.

Actually I grew up (in England) and remain a 'Socialist'. You can tax me till I bleed if the old, the sick and the needy are cared for.

[Opusnone]

7. You sound very sweet

DNA research? That's about as progressive as it gets, yes?
As for your last comment, I nominate you for the winner of Character Counts Week!

[cool user name]

28. I second that nomination!

[jannyk]

29. Aw shucks ...

thanks for the vote, but sweet I don't qualify for. I've been called many things, but 'sweet' was never one of them (although I suffered from 'terminal' cute when younger).

I also have a confession, I actually don't know a single republican, at least not one that will admit to it. I'd really like to meet one because I've got a load to get off my mind, but they're rarer than rocking horse shit here in San Francisco - now wasn't that sweet!
We truly have no idea what you DU'ers, that live in 'pugland, go through every day. Here's to you all
:toast:

[Little Star]

12. You get my vote for Character Counts Week also.

Person after my own heart!!!

[irislake]

30. I agree 100%

Though I am not rich, a bit hard up senior in Canada. I don't mind paying my taxes at all and it matters to me very much what happens to those who are on minimum wage. Thank god for our health care and the "free" drugs for seniors. I can't understand how people with so much money can be indifferent to the have-nots. I secretly believe such cruelty and greed blackens their soul and that they pay for it in the end.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. I have two,

Two of my bosses - both extremely wealthy

One is a democrat and extremely liberal - supported the recall of Gray Davis because he thought Davis might as well be a Republican.

the other is a republican who seems to be holding out hope that Nixon is comming back from the grave,
He is however pretty liberal, against the death penalty, for gun control and seems perfetly content with his lesbian daughter.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

11. Wealthy people are rarely socially conservative

Even the ones who espouse those views in public. In their private lives and even in their business dealings they tend to be pretty tolerant of diversity.

[Nicole]

8. It's probably a tie

Both have an enormous amount of money. One is a Democrat & the other is not.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

9. I've met John Sperling

I was at a party hosted by him at his home. He's the octogenerian president of Apollo group, the parent company of University of Phoenix among other things. He's a bigtime political activist/philanthropist. He's led efforts to bring medical marijuana and publicly funded elections to states. He wrote The Great Divide, which was about the Metro/Retro theory.

He's a gazillionaire and definitely a lefty. I've noticed that above a certain income level, there's no assumed political affiliation. That should say something to the people who think that supporting Republican economic policies will propel them to wealth.

[HockeyMom]

10. He Started a Medical Supply Co.

Worth Millions. They are very unpretentious and Liberal Democrats. They sent their children to the local public schools and state colleges. I can remember the father saying to the kids many times, "Never forget where you came from (immigrant poverty)." One year he told us that he paid $500,000 in taxes and said, "Well, we can afford it. If some poor families can benefit from our tax money, so be it." This was long before our fiasco in Iraq. I am sure he is not so happy now paying all those taxes to kill thousands of Iraqis.

[Opusnone]

15. Bellyaching about taxes comes from other quarters

Is there an inverse relationship to net worth versus complaining about "tax and spend" policies. In other words, the richer you are, the less it matters.

I've heard many on the left say they didn't need the tax cuts, but none on the right. I wonder why.

[Imagevision]

13. The wealthy care not which party, only the party that cares about them

Howard Hughes wanted to back a candidate running for the presidency when asked which party? Hughes replied, it doesn't matter, "someone who will win".

[soothsayer]

14. I know two gay millionaires, both repukes (hate that!) one an ex GF

[zulchzulu]

16. A friend of mine is worth millions and is a voting Progressive

He loathes Bush and Repugs in general.

[iamahaingttta]

17. My cousin and her husband...

..are pretty rich, and they're "tax-cut republicans."
Trying to engage them in conversation is impossible.
Once she literally put her fingers in her ears and said "I don't wanna talk about this."
Their Bush tax-cuts paid for the addition to their house where they put the $150,000 piano that nobody plays.

She has a cousin (on the other side of her family) who is filthy rich, probably a one percenter.
He's a dogmatic republican, anti big governement and such.
All he cares about now are his golf vacations in Hawaii and his sports cars.
Both families have kids who are spoiled and ambitionless.

None of these people cares about anything but themselves.
It's really pretty sad, because "they're all so nice!"
The niceness is actually a facade, a veil, and the pain they all endure is often salved by the latest toy or game on the market.

I'm poor, but happy. I can live with myself...

[AndyTiedye]

18. Not a Lot of Repiglicans Around Here at Any Income Level (SF Bay Area)

Lots of wealthy Democrats. That's why California got punished so much after the Neocons seized power.

[Jane Eyre]

19. Charlotte, NC

Most of the wealthier people in Charlotte, NC have tended to be Democrats in the past, though that has changed a bit in recent years. For example, Hugh McColl is the former head of Bank of America and is also a Democrat as well as a big contributor to a number of humanitarian and community-building causes. Former Charlotte Mayor John Belk of Belk Stores is a Democrat, as are most of the Belk family members.

There has been some public concern about the "changing of the guard" as some of the older generation of community-minded movers-and-shakers locally retire and pass away. Charlotte's growth as a "new South" city is largely because of their vision and community-minded generosity. It's a city where you didn't have to be a part of the existing establishment to come in and be a player, sort of a meritocracy I guess.

The thing about people with money, however, is that party affiliation doesn't necessarily matter when it comes to political donations/endorsements. You'll see wealthy Democrats sometimes publicly supporting Republican candidates and vice versa.

[Opusnone]

20. ala George Clooney stumping for Arnold

[City Lights]

22. My cousin is a rich, "Christian" repubican.

He's a financial planner. He and his wife are fake Christians. They wear their Christianity on their sleeves, but it's all for show. They think being active in their church automatically makes them good Christians. His wife is the nastiest person I know. She hates everyone. They think their brand of Christianity (I think it's Assembly of God) is better than all others and believe they are the chosen ones. They only socialize with other Assembly of God types.

[ourbluenation]

23. There are uber rich in my family and they are dems. Then there are the

fairly wealthy in my family and they are hard core rightie catholics.

[Finder]

24. Mostly all Repubs and one Dem(but Bush supporter)...

A few of the repubs are former Dems though.

[riona]

25. Not sure which one is the wealthiest

but the majority vote repug. After all, Dems will get their hands on their money and throw it away on undeserving poor people. The horror of it all!

[LiberalEsto]

26. One of my husband's older brothers

is an extraordinarily wealthy retired banker. He worked for Paul Volker when Volker was head of the Federal Reserve. Clinton asked him to be an undersecretary of the Treasury in 1993, but he turned it down. I guess he is nominally still a Democrat, but since we don't speak to him, we wouldn't know.

[Roon]

27. My step-brother is a multi-millionare

He is a repub. :-(

[earth mom]

31. I have some friends I consider well off...

who say they are liberal and talk the talk but they don't really walk the walk. I am so much further left and very much for the poor, the working class and the middle class that it's sometimes really hard for me not to scream at them about their priorities and values. They are probably more DLCers than anything and think that rampant capitalism-which I feel has ruined this country-is the greatest thing since sliced bread. What really bugs me is how they play the stock market so gleefully without a thought of how the profits they are making is done at someone else's expense-usually the worker. They think nothing about hiring illegal immigrants over at the Home Depot so they can pay them less on construction jobs; the exploitation of which just ticks me off to no end. I still like them, but for how much longer I don't know. And I no longer trust them. :(

[neebob]

32. I don't know any really wealthy people

but the wealthiest ones I know well are liberal Democrats. However, I'm also acquainted with some people who can get Poopy Bush on the phone - so there ya go.