Southern Knight said:
Gentlemen, gentlemen....you are all missing the obvious point. We don't have a "two-party monopoly," ans Mr. Wassall suggests. We have a one-party dictatorship, no different from the Soviet Union.
Actually, I don't disagree with you and that's the point I was trying to make, but not in as blunt a manner. Two parties that allow no genuine opposition and which agree on all the important issues are not two parties but one party with two wings.
If you looked at charts showing the growth of government over the past 75 years,the growth of the federal deficit, the growth in taxes, etc., there would be no difference between when a "conservative Republican" administration was in power and a "liberal Democrat" one.
As far as social issues, there can be sharp differences in rhetoric and supposed beliefs between the two (the kind of stuff Limbaugh and Co. love to make a big deal over), but when it comes to actual policy again there is no difference. Affirmative action started at the federal level in earnest under Nixon and has gotten progressively worse ever since. When was the last time the Republicans even talked about affirmative action much less evidenced any intent to stop it?
Same with abortion. The GOP has had most of the Supreme Court nominations for the past 32 years since Roe v. Wade was issued and haven't changed the composition of the Court in a decisively conservative, pro-Constitutiondirection and never will. John Roberts will be yet another one of those "social moderates" that conservatives scratch their heads over and wonder "how did it happen again?" (Personally, I think the only solution to the abortion issue is to make it a states rights issue, as should just about everything else.)
The only issue where there is a real difference between the two is on gun control, but even there it is the overwhelming and active opposition of the people that has prevented gun confiscation. If only Americans were one-tenth as aware when it comes to everything else.
Edited by: Don Wassall