In November 1980 I was invited to my ex-mayor/new-congressman Elton Gallegly’s victory celebration. I was a young businessman with 30 employees and doing pretty good and was very conservative. I got into a conservation with a group of other likeminded young Republicans and they were discussing a Utopian future where Republicans owned all real estate and everyone had to rent from them. I was a union contractor and believed that one of the things that made America powerful was a strong middle class who could purchase homes and buy American made cars and TVs of which there were aplenty to chose from. They laughed me and my communist ideas out of the group. I am embarrassed to say that the following year we bought a horse ranch near Cambria and installed solar panels and a wind generator exactly when Reagan was dismantling the solar panels on the White House, and I remained in the party for another 7 years. I want to say that I am sorry to each and every American for that lapse of judgement.
In November 1980 I was invited to my ex-mayor/new-congressman Elton Gallegly’s victory celebration. I was a young businessman with 30 employees and doing pretty good and was very conservative. I got into a conservation with a group of other likeminded young Republicans and they were discussing a Utopian future where Republicans owned all real estate and everyone had to rent from them. I was a union contractor and believed that one of the things that made America powerful was a strong middle class who could purchase homes and buy American made cars and TVs of which there were aplenty to chose from. They laughed me and my communist ideas out of the group. I am embarrassed to say that the following year we bought a horse ranch near Cambria and installed solar panels and a wind generator exactly when Reagan was dismantling the solar panels on the White House, and I remained in the party for another 7 years. I want to say that I am sorry to each and every American for that lapse of judgement.