Democrats and Republicans: What’s the Difference?
An old friend of mine recently shared a propaganda post with the tired old theme that there’s no different between political parties, that Democrats and Republicans are the same, that you can’t trust any of them.
I agree that some politicians are untrustworthy. Some are liars. But to suggest that the political parties are the same, that there is no line between them … it’s just wrong. Don’t take their word for it. Look at their records. Look at how they have voted, the laws they have passed, the things they try to do.
Here are some key differences, most of them becoming wider and wider in the last couple of decades:
Democrats want you to be able to marry the people you love.
Most Republicans want to control your marriage choices.
Democrats care about budget deficits and responsible government spending. Republicans don’t. Don’t believe me? Consider that each Republican president since 1980 has massively increased the deficit. Each Democrat president has reduced it, and Clinton actually ran a *surplus* his final year in office.
This year may be the most important election in our lives
Democrats voted to give American healthcare.
Republicans have fought tooth and nail to take it away.
Democrats have fought all across this country for healthy families to be able to adopt children, regardless of the parents sexual orientation.
Republicans want to deny the right of those children to find safe and happy families.
Democrats have voted to have fair taxes on corporations and the wealthiest among us.
Republicans have cut taxes for the richest and for corporations at the expense of the rest of us.
Democrats have consistently voted to support veterans, including the biggest expansion of GI Bill benefits since World War II. Republicans fought that bill and have tried to cut its benefits. More recently, they’ve begin fighting to dismantle the VA entirely so that the billions of dollars spent each year can go into private sector business instead of the care of veterans.
Neither Dems nor Republicans have managed to extricate us from Afghanistan with anything resembling a victory, but it was a Republican president who chose to invade Iraq, destroying the stability of the region and ending with hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars wasted.
Finally, it’s become clear in the last year or more that Republican politicians care nothing for the institutions and law that makes America what it is. As the President of the United States actively attacks the first Amendment, smears his opponents, engages in the most egregious public corruption out in the open, the Republican congress sits and does nothing. Nothing. The President of the United States actively seeks to divide us with appeals to white supremacists and nativism that is unseen in the United States in decades, and they do nothing. The President actively undermines the stability of the health care markets, costing all of us with higher health insurance costs, and they do nothing. The President actively undermines our national security, and they do nothing.
It’s clear that there is no core belief system at the heart of the Republican Party. The only thing they believe in is tribalism. The only thing they believe in is winning.
Don’t ever tell me there’s no difference between the parties.
The primary elections here are September 4, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 6. This year may be the most important election in our lives. It may be the last chance to set limits on the power of a corrupt President.
Please. Go vote. And recognize that the differences between the parties couldn’t be more stark.