The Democratic Party that existed during my childhood and through early adulthood bore little or no resemblance to what it has become. In earlier times being a Democrat identified one as a proud, God-inspired American with intense traditional values, true love of country, belief in a strong, cohesive family unit, hard work, self-reliance, dedication to constitutional norms, equality and respect for others. Today, however, the party I once knew seems to say forget religious beliefs, forget the right to defend one's self, forget about hard work, just let working taxpayers provide, and disavow longheld moral decency standards as being irrelevant...