TWEEDLEDUM AIN’T TWEEDLEDEE

There are those who are falling into the rightwing trap of believing that the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans because the new Congress hasn’t stopped funding for the war. (I can get pissed off at the Democrats as much as anyone, see my recent post UNFORTUNATELY.)

That’s the same trap that got Nixon elected in 1968 and W. elected in 2000, because those convinced of the “no difference between Tweedledee and Tweedledum” voted for a third party instead, and the difference was in both cases thousands and thousands and thousands of lives lost to death and destruction as a result of wars waged or not ended sooner.

Yes, there are Americans and Iraqis dying as a result of the war continuing to be funded but if the Democrats end this war one day sooner than the Republicans would, all the lives lost on that day will be happy to stand up and say that there is a difference between the parties.

The rightwing became expert under Nixon at discouraging people who used to routinely vote for Democrats to vote for Republicans or stay home, and Reagan perfected their strategy, which deliberately sets out to make voting seem pointless, because they knew, as W’s people, that the majority of U. S. citizens lean more toward liberal issues and solutions than they do toward conservative ones in almost every area except where “conservatism” has been distorted and is now the opposite (i.e. conserving our forests and air etc.)

Are Democrats victims of the same need to raise inordinate amounts of moola to pay for campaigns that begin the day after the election that motivates every politician nowadays? Absolutely. Does this make them susceptible to lobbyists and “special interests” etc.? Yes.

But. And this “but” saves lives—they can counter the cowed rubber-stamping of the previous Republican controlled Congress with measures to reverse some of the damage the Bushies have done, and even if that reversal is only incremental, it can go a long way to relieving the suffering and death of people who might otherwise not have a chance.

That was the idea behind this post when I first put it up yesterday, before I heard objections to the whole point of the post I was directing people to on one of my recommended sites: coolbirth.