The difference between the Democrats and Republicans.

I'm fascinated by American politics. I don't know why. I guess I enjoy the silliness of a fake two party system, that really is only one party.

Yes, I think that the democrats and the republicans are basically the same party. All their leaders basically do the same thing. Obama is no different. He's authorized massive war, believes in bailouts for corporations and wants to keep the health care system about the same as it is now (he backed off on the public option).

Any republican president would have done the same thing. None of this is very insightful. What I find fascinating is that the republicans and democrats pretend they're different. They have silly arguments about abortion and gay rights etc. They want and need us to talk about these differences because on all the big issues they're the same.

Example: government spending. Both parties say they want and believe in fiscal responsibility. The US debt is now $12.4 trillion. So if both parties are for fiscal responsibility why does the USA owe so much money.

Example: war. Every president starts or gets involved in a major war.

Example: economy. Both parties believe in bailing out wall street. George W. Bush did it and then Obama continued it. Senator McCain said he would have done it as well (although now he changed his mind).

Example: health care. Both parties want to fix it, but not enough to make it a "free" single payer system. Obama said he did, and even had a super majority to do it, but got cold feet and backed down in the end.

The last example brings up a good point: Each party says they want certain things, but when they get the chance - they fail to deliver. That's because they don't really want it. The republicans will always be one vote shy of overturning Roe v. Wade and the dems will always be stopped just short of passing whatever fancy social service they brag about for years.

Each party will blame each other and try to get more votes. That's the way it is. Politicians are elected to preserve the system, not change it.

What's wrong with liberals.

A couple days ago I wrote about what was wrong with conservatives. Now I'll return the favour for liberals. So what's wrong with them?

- They push their own "morality" on society. (Political correctness, forced green initiatives, etc.)

- They meddle too much with the economy.

- They pursue a political strategy of appeasement with enemies and aggressive nations.

- They have a sense of entitlement (I should be provided free medical care, welfare, employment insurance, benefits)

In short, they're typically young and naive. They don't understand the world very well and they think that the government can solve all their problems. Most annoyingly, they think the government can "pay" for everything.

Guess where the government gets its money from? You and me. One more question: is the government good at doing things? Are government bureucrats successful in their various efforts? No, of course not.

Oh you liberals!

What's wrong with conservatives.

I'm reading Liberty and tyranny : a conservative manifesto by Mark R. Levin. He basically outlines conservatism as the perfect political outlook, and his descriptions of conservatism sound fantastic. If you didn't know better, you'd say, "Yeah I'm a conservative!"

He starts to go wrong when he begins describing liberals (or "stateists"). He exaggerates their position, and talks about all their bad ideas. He says that liberalism is basically a soft form of tyranny because liberals want the power to control your life with laws and regulations.

In other words, they're busy-body do-gooders that want to mother you and protect you like a nanny. Partly true, of course. But he doesn't mention the problems with conservatives. I'd thought I'd share a few in my opinion:

- They're close-minded and stubborn.
- They don't like "change", and are often against progressive or new ideas.
- They're pro-military and aggressive
- They're socially dogmatic and often push religious views on people.