- Joined
- Jul 31, 2010
- Messages
- 5,395
- Reaction score
- 2,782
- Location
- Minneapolis
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Other
I agree with you, and you should elaborate on what drives US policies. Because partisans on both sides think there's a world of difference between both parties when in fact, there's a dimes thickness in difference between them. Both parties use the CIA to topple left leaning democracies and replace them with right wing dictatorships, both parties have relentlessly supported Israel in the ME, both parties have simultaneously supported militant Islamic groups in the ME. Occupying troops in both Korea and Germany have been perpetuated throughout decades of both administrations. The over the top very offensive Pentagon budget has dwarfed the rest of the worlds with only slight variations between administrations. At home you hear people complaining that 110 million people are on some sort of federal assistance under Obama, as though there were none on it under Bush, when in fact there were 100 million on it then, 70 million under Clinton, 50 million under Bush, 30 million under Reagan and so on, proving that its a trend that surpasses administrations. The national debt tripled under Reagan, doubled under George W Bush and likely will double again under Obama. Our southern border has been unsecured forever, but let partisans tell it and Obama opened the gates when he became president. Abortions have been happening legally, for 45 years and the GOP campaigns on the issue, but never changes it, Navy Pride says there's 54,000,000 now. Note the Church Committees report and subsequent whistle blowers up to and including Edward Snowden, and the NSA has been engaged in one form of extra constitutional domestic spying or another for 40 years, and no party has reigned them in. And there's no end to the similitude of policies between the parties and from one administration to the next. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
You're right on with all of that. There's a reason for all of it, too. Instead of a royal family, america has their corporate darlings who are funding campaigns. Some of the donors come from families who have been funding campaigns since the industrial revolution. The other arm is the lobbyists who manipulate congress and public opinion, which I'm sure is fairly easy. These outside influences make it impossible for any person to come to Washington and make meaningful change. You have to be very, very adept at politics and already have a lot of power and allies to step into the White House and overcome the challenge of competing with the machinery. I think that Clinton was the most successful, but as you pointed out, the troubling trends all continued and major policies went completely unchanged.
It's not Democrats vs. Republicans, it's Bureaucrats vs. Capitalists, and the real debate is how each side can make a lot of money.