Categories: Authoritarianism

Our Two Major Political Parties – The Illusion and Realities of Their Essences

Over the years, some have said that there is little difference between our two major political parties. This is certainly a favorite characterization made by third-party members like Libertarians, who actually represent the extremes of both major parties. However, if they are so much alike, why haven’t we had record numbers of bills passed by Congress in recent years?

One of the reasons for the acceptance of this characterization is the similar language used by both sides. Republicans have a well-founded message machine developed and refined over several decades. Democrats don’t. Democrats just use the Republican talking points preceded by a negative. Thus Republicans make statements and Democrats repeat them.

Another fact that makes them appear the same is the disproportionate pressure released against them by the unrestrained “freedoms” of the ONE%. The CEOs, major stockholders, Koch Brothers, the Walton family of Wal-Mart, and other billionaires – through coalitions like The Gang of Six – not only fund election campaigns but spend lots of face time in the offices of their Congressional representatives.

However, as documented throughout this blog, there is one key difference between the two parties of today. The Republican party has become extremely authoritarian in nature. They are an army and march in lockstep farther and farther to the right. (It’s these same Republican who enabled the Citizens United Decision.)

Democrats, on the other hand, remain fractured and have forgotten how to express their progressive values as they repeat the conservative dogma which automatically suppresses their progressive ideals. They become unwitting accomplices to the Republican message machine. They should, instead, speak out on how each of us is responsible for each other, and for a necessary government that protects and empowers all its citizens equally.

Frankly, I wish the two parties were more alike, and less partisan – as they were before Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, and Ronald Reagan. Before 1980, and the further back you look, there was a mix of political views in both parties. Our post WWII and pre-Reagan history shows the two parties were more alike than now, and, most importantly, got stuff done.

Case in point: Here is a quote from retired Senator Evan Bayh, son of Senator Birch Bayh, from Who Stole the American Dream by Hedrick Smith. Both Senators are Democrats. Senator Evan Bayh describes his father’s situation in 1968, when his father was seeking re-election for his second of three terms:

[Senator] Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader, approached him [Senator Birch Bayh] on the Senate floor, put his arm around my father’s shoulder, and asked what he could do to help. This is unimaginable today.

Hedrick Smith also summarized the change of the Republican party with the following juxtapositions:

In the latest Congress, Republican Senate moderates have dwindled from the twenty-two recruited by Dirksen on civil rights to just three …. In the House, the sixty-five [Republican] moderates who voted for Medicare with [President] Johnson have shrunk to fewer than a dozen.

The swing to the Republican [authoritarian] Right has been especially strong in the South. … shot up from just 4 Senate seats to 20, and from 14 House seats to 102.

We need two parties more alike, centrist, but with Democrats who can talk their progressive values. We also need to overturn Citizens United and regain control of our Congress.

 

Andy Hailey

Vietnam Vet, UT El Paso Grad, Retired Aerospace Engineer, former union rep, 60's Republican now progressive, web admin, blogger.

View Comments

  • Once I realized who these BOTH political parties work for, really, I stopped paying much attention to their antics, of which the 'FISCAL CLIFF" is the latest.

    It is very important to understand the game is rigged, and the Cabal who really runs things are aware of the importance of the masses to be divided and diverted from the truth.
    So we're told constantly about the "differences" between parties calling Obama a "socialist" without offering any substance to the charges, as an example.

    So what to do?
    Where can we spend our time to be effective in producing real changes?
    OUTSIDE THE REGULAR POLITICS

    Changes will unlikely come from inside the current outrageously corrupt US political scene. Money has already turned it into a whore house from the White House, the Senate, Congress and the Supreme Court.
    My view is that real changes will come from the activities performed by enough number of people inside the Real Economy. We'll have to first wake up to the actual process of enslavement we're suffering through the creation of the currency by Private financial institutions, and once it is understood fully, then go for the goal of amassing at least 10% of the people in the US (about 32 million) to make the changes bypassing the US dollar and establishing a series of separate local currencies that will allow us to jump-start the economy again and PAY NO INTEREST to the scumbags who control the dollar.

    It is all a MIND GAME. Our enslavement has been achieved by convincing us to adopt the "narrative" created by our enslavers. Not only the Banana Republicans, but also the Ass-Democrats are lost in mental structures foreign to the reality we live.

    Once we wake up, once we have our "Emperor-has-no-clothes" moment, then the rest will go smoothly because the truth will seem evident.

    We need at least 10% of the population according to this study:
    http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-07-minority-scientists-ideas.html

    The masses will always be sheep and will follow whatever narrative is in "fashion" imposed by a stedfast minority.

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