What's the difference......

[Henry]

Still looking for the difference.

 

[gravitas73]

Outdated thanks to the neocon plague but from the West Wing..

"Republicans want a large military and don't want to send it anywhere.
Democrats want a small military and want to send it everywhere"

 

[gunsisgood]

One wants to kill more babies than the other one.

^This X 10
also the democrats HATE this country, the republicans not so much.

 

[gravitas73]

^This X 10
also the democrats HATE this country, the republicans not so much.

Here have some more Kool-Aid

 

[Draco]

The Republicans are generally supported by the providers. Those who work and pay taxes. The Democrats are generally supported by the users. Those who want everything given to them by the providers.

If the Democrats are all about siphoning money to the poor;
and if the poor have all this money given to them;
wouldn't they cease being poor and stop being Democrats as a result?

Also, if Democrats are only supported by the poor and the proverbial takers, one must wonder how they raise so much money. After all, all their constituents are lazy do-nothings who cannot be bothered to work, right? And businesses, well, they like buying elections all right, but they could just as easily back the Republicans, buy them off, and pay lower taxes.

Maybe I'm wrong, but maybe things just aren't that simple.

(I'm not up on my PC-speak. Have "Job Creators" become "Providers" this cycle, or was that your own addition? Personally, I like yours more. Job Creators has always sounded so silly, like they market tested the phrase and drew a bad batch of randomly selected people.)

^This X 10
also the democrats HATE this country, the republicans not so much.

Why, I didn't know that about myself! My kind gratitude for opening my eyes on this issue.

Seriously, though, the two party system is rubbish.

Out of curiosity, how many people here would be keen on the prospect of publically funded campaigns while other funding sources? Say a system that could be set up in a way that the most popular handful of candidates get funding, get included in all the debates, and won't be beholden to whoever writes all the checks. However, I'm a bit fuzzy on how one would narrow a field to only a handful of candidates before the public financing kicked in.

It's the only potential fix I've heard that seems like it'd work, though making all donations anonymous was a curious thought experiment. (If no one can claim they donated and prove it, then supposedly candidates wouldn't feel obligated to return the favor. I just don't see that balance working on a large scale.)

In any case, it'd be nice if we had real debates. A bit more Lincoln v Douglas and a bit less “I love America!” “No, I love America more!” rubbish. For that matter, it’d be dandy if the debates were real debates at all rather than orchestrated games of “Who can create the best soundbyte for the presubmitted questions?” Or, you know, if they at least let people onto the stage that aren’t Democrat or Republican.

But I’m an idealist. Maybe things are unfixable. But I also don’t see a whole lot of good come out of apathetic claims that it is all meaningless. If you leave politics to the politicians, if you remove the only influence you have on the process, do you really think the end result is going to be good? Better to nudge things, even imperceptably, in the right direction than to do nothing at all.

And we may get fewer career politicians when we stop dragging everyone's life under a microscope and reducing people to their worst mistake or their greatest life failing. I don't much care that Clinton got with Monica; I don't much care that Bush did cocaine; I don't care if they're drunks, philanderers, or even convicts; and I especially don't care about their religion or their children's sexual oritentation. I care about the work they do and have done, the ideas they stand and fight for, and their ideal direction for the country/state/county. I'm just saying, the way things are now, I wouldn't subject myself to that mess; and I certainly wouldn't drag my family into that nightmare. I mean, would you? (And yeah, I wouldn't get elected; that is further down on the list of reasons you'll never see my name on a ballot.)