After reading so many letters submitted to the Register by Republicans explaining what those "out of touch with the mainstream" Democrats stand for, I felt compelled to respond and provide examples of recent actions that seem to illustrate a Republican Party dominated by Christian fundamentalists, economic "regressive taxes" conservatives, the neo-cons and their Project For a New American Century.

* A massive tax cut for the rich ("voodoo economics" or "trickle down economics" for those who remember the 80's) has led to the largest budget deficit in our history of $412.55 billion in fiscal 2004. Not to discount, of course, the all-time record high trade deficit of $617.7 billion in 2004.

* The unrelenting public relations campaign that was filled with lies and misinformation to wage a unilateral war on a country that was not a threat to us, had no WMDs, ties with terrorism nor links with al-Qaida. This illegal war has resulted in over 1,600 U.S. deaths, 12,000 wounded and an estimation of up to 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed, according to the British medical journal Lancet. The smoking gun found in the form of a leaked memo, written in July 2002 by Matthew Rycroft, a British foreign policy aide, and published on May 1 by the Sunday Times of London reveals "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD" and how "facts were being fixed around the policy."

* The outing of a CIA officer, by conservative columnist and television commentator Robert Novak, who was fed the information by two senior administration officials, because she was married to a critic of the Bush administration unilateral march to war with Iraq. The fact that the investigation into this is not headline news says a great deal about the dominant mainstream press.

* Manipulating and censoring science for political purposes by the Bush administration as documented in an open letter and report critical of this practice signed by 60 top U.S. scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates.

* A party that claims to be "pro-life" and against abortion, yet it does not believe in comprehensive sex education and pushes abstinence only programs because of ideology when studies clearly show that these programs alone do not work. A party that let the 10-year-old assault weapons ban expire last year. A party that is pro-death penalty and yet somehow still "pro-life", despite the fact that in recent years many death row inmates have been proven innocent and fully exonerated by DNA testing.

* A horrible environmental record by the Bush administration with major changes to our core environmental laws. According to the National Resource Defense Council, "Since the Bush administration began, health warnings to avoid eating locally caught fish have doubled and completed cleanup of toxic wastes at Superfund sites have fallen by 52 percent; yet civil citations issued to polluters have dropped by 57 percent and criminal prosecutions of polluters have fallen 17 percent." Then there's this sobering fact, again courtesy of NRDC, "EPA data documents a 75 percent decline in the number of federal lawsuits filed against companies violating national environmental laws in the first three years of the Bush administration." This is all the result of policy decisions that directly affect the health of our country.

* Almost immediately after being re-elected President Bush started a campaign, including the 60 cities in 60 days tour, to "save" a Social Security program he says is in "crisis." A few facts about Social Security are in order so that we can ascertain if there is actually a "crisis" or not. First, Social Security will be able to pay all benefits until 2041 (Social Security Trustees) or 2052 (Congressional Budget Office) after that it would pay between 75 and 80 percent of guaranteed benefits even if nothing was done at all before then. Secondly, so called "private accounts" will do absolutely nothing to help the solvency of Social Security as has been admitted by members of the Bush administration. Thirdly, we would have to borrow an estimated $5 trillion to $15 trillion over the coming decades to "pay" for those accounts. Lastly, along with those wonderful "private accounts" you get sharp benefits cuts in the future.

As for the usual responses I am sure will be forthcoming concerning the invasion of Iraq, namely that we are spreading "democracy" and "freedom" (revisionist history). I would say that that was not the reason we were told that we had to attack, but if it had been, then the people of Tibet, who have been occupied by China for over 50 years, are patiently waiting for their liberation any time we can get to them.

(Yeager lives in Napa.)