The Democratic party has its share of dirty laundry as well. However, I personally don't like the Republican Party anymore (And I used to support them back in 2007-2010) mainly because of their destructive and backwards ideologies. For example, in this area, many Republicans heavily support Christianity being taught in a public school setting. I can totally understand a private school setting as it is not funded by the government, but the public school one is a no-go. Many Republicans in this area also support anti-LGBT sentiment, such as not allowing gay marriage at the state level (again, I can understand in a church setting, but LGBT people tend to not go to places where they are seen as a disease, such as churches), and that LGBT people should not have the same rights as someone who is cis-gender, and heterosexual. Many Republicans in this area also think that the reason for why this area is so poor is because of immigrants, both legal and illegal. The main reason for that (in this area of California) is because the small business owners pretty much control the politics at the local level, and most of the city council meetings are pretty much addressing only tax breaks for the small businesses and nothing else. Many of the UC students here actively say that the area around here sucks mainly because of the Republicans pretty much making their lives miserable (which is a tossup in that because of other factors, but still valid, due to their ideas pretty much being thrown out the door before they are even acknowledged in the city council meetings). Overall, the Republican party runs this area, and this area is considered one of the poorest, one of the most polluted, one of the most violent, and one of the least educated counties in all of California. The only reason why this area isn't ranked number 1 in California for being the least educated is because the UC here is barely keeping that statistic down. However, many of the UC students tend to leave this area for good once they get their degrees.