I've been getting in a lot of comment thread arguments lately on friends' Facebook pages over a pet peeve of mine which is liberals and progressives, or just otherwise usually clearheaded people when it comes to most things, equating Democrats and Republicans, lumping all politicians together and concluding there's no difference between them so either what's the point or let's throw all the bums out.
The simplest way to refute those claims is to say if they were true then that would mean Elizabeth Warren equals Ted Cruz or Obama/Biden equals Bush/Cheney. And as absurd as that seems, there are plenty who will say yes that's exactly what they mean. Not the rightwing Republicans who have been creating all the havoc in our politics and society though. They know the difference.
It has been a Republican strategy for many decades, to frame politics as a no-point-in-participating game because even if that just diminishes the voting among a small percentage (and obviously fewer and fewer people vote in more and more elections, so it is a large percentage) that's all they need to discourage because their base, in this decade Tea Partiers, but they had other names in other periods, the so-called Silent Majority and hardhats etc., will come out and vote no matter what.
If there are to be any gains made in the struggle to protect the checks and balances of our system and prevent a takeover by a tiny minority that thinks it represents the true Founding principles but, consciously or not, only represents the will of corporate greed heads, it can only be through seeing and articulating as clearly as possible. And equating the Democrats or Obama, no matter how flawed and susceptible they are as well to money interests, with Republicans and Bush or Romney or Reagan or Nixon or the Ted Cruzes et. al. is not clearheaded at all, it's lazy ass thinking that contributes to the problem not the solution.
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4 comments:
Michael,
Rolling down my car window, as you once did to Minnie Driver, to say "Good job" on the subject of Democrats to Republicans. Our state of Vermont is filled with both, and both can do good and both can do wicked, and you know the difference.
all's well, Bob
Dear M: A great minds think alike moment---I just finished sending an email to Petula Dvorak, a Washington Post columnist, who asks in toady's paper: "So what should be the fate of our 535 voting members of Congress, who are shutting down the government?" She lumps them all together & suggests various punishments for them. This is what we're getting from so-called professional journalists in a respected (supposedly, but not really, liberal)major newspaper. The establishment media seem terrified at assigning blame where it squarely should reside: with House Republicans.
Good post.
true enough Bob, in individual cases, but in the aggregate, the Repubs have done much more harm to the general welfare. And tp, I hope your email does some good. Tom, thanks.
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