Reply #44: I'm not talking about individuals. I'm talking about the history of federal policy - [View All]

...spanning enough history to include time periods where Democrats were in power and when republicans were in power.

We should look at POLICY and law passed to decide what we think about the two parties. The actions of all federal representatives in both parties have resulted in the country we have today - one that flagrantly benefits and subsidizes corporate business interests at the expense of ordinary americans. It is a country in which, according to a 2004 GAO report, 61% of all US Based corporations pay nothing in taxes.

It is a country in which an industry with record breaking, mind-boggling profits - the Oil Industry - continues to be heavily SUBSIDIZED by my tax dollars. I'm paying to help Big Oil stay afloat? Whatever happened to the free market? It is a country in which, for more than a half a century, the social service and welfare programs of this country have been continually eroded, with the allowance of both democratically controlled and republican controlled congresses during that time period - all at the behest of business interests.

When you look at the history of American in the last half century, you can only reasonably believe two things:

Either there are major differences between the Democrats and the Republicans, and it is entirely the Republicans fault for the last fifty years that we live in a society that is so exploitative of the working class and provides welfare to corporations....and thus the democratic party is the weakest most pathetic most ineffective political party ever to come into being....

Or, we acknowledge that we have the society that we have because both parties have allowed and/or encouraged it to happen at various points over the last fifty years.

And incidentally, what passes as a "liberal" idea in this country is LAUGHABLE in other parts of the world. The problem is that in America, we take about 10% of the entire spectrum of political ideas, and label one side "conservative" and Republican and the other side "liberal" and Democratic. But in the scheme of the full spectrum of political thought, there is not vast difference between the two ruling parties.

Are there some good individuals within the Democratic Party? Of course there are. But we need to be making institutional criticism, and looking at what the history of the democratic party as a whole has gotten us and how it compares with the history of the republican party.

There are differences between the parties. But there are not enough differences between the parties.