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# Health insurance: A scam or a saving grace? Dems are not what they used to be
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/health-insurance-a-scam-or-a-saving-grace-dems-are-not-what-they-used-to-be-editor/
- Published: 2004-09-21T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:07:37.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pacific Palisades, #archive-import

*By Carmen Finestra Santa Monica*

If Nancy Winograd, of the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club, wants to say the “Democratic Party is listening” then she should have known that Cheryl D. Strong, the reader she criticized (SMDP, Sept. 17, page 4) for writing a letter (SMDP, Sept. 13, page 4) pointing out the proper way for the Democratic Headquarters in Santa Monica to display the flag was not voting for Bush/Cheney, as Ms. Winograd said, but clearly stated she was an independent.

Ms. Winograd, “if you’re going to listen” without prejudice then you should first try to read without prejudice. Otherwise, you would seem to be saying anyone who gives directions on how to properly fly the flag must be some Bush/Cheney fanatic.

Also, don’t be so sure the Democratic Party hasn’t turned the same deaf ear to the middle class that you accuse the Republicans of. The Republican Presidents Reagan and Bush cut middle class taxes. The Democrat, Bill Clinton, promised a middle class tax cut but never delivered.

Also, it was the Democratic President Clinton who championed NAFTA, which has destroyed many of the manufacturing jobs that gave my parents, hard-working Italian immigrants with little education, the ability to be in the middle class.

So, perhaps Ms. Winograd the present Democratic Party is not so dissimilar to the Republican Party. You must have been thinking of the old Democratic Party of Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern, the one I used to belong to. We’ve long since gone over to the true champion of the middle class, Ralph Nader. Also, Nader is the candidate of the poor. Your new Democratic Party, led by Mr. Clinton, helped bring us the welfare reform that set up the mechanisms that have left many of the current poor without a safety net.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 21, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)