Yes I’m a Canadian but US politics is just so much more interesting than the stuff we see, that and whatever happens down there affects the rest of the world too unfortunately. I stumbled upon this and found it quite fascinating to read.
Those lines of dialogue from a classic film noir sum up the state of the two political parties in contemporary America. Both parties are rotten – how could they not be, given the complete infestation of the political system by corporate money on a scale that now requires a presidential candidate to raise upwards of a billion dollars to be competitive in the general election? Both parties are captives to corporate loot. The main reason the Democrats’ health care bill will be a budget buster once it fully phases in is the Democrats’ rank capitulation to corporate interests – no single-payer system, in order to mollify the insurers; and no negotiation of drug prices, a craven surrender to Big Pharma.
But both parties are not rotten in quite the same way. The Democrats have their share of machine politicians, careerists, corporate bagmen, egomaniacs and kooks. Nothing, however, quite matches the modern GOP.
To those millions of Americans who have finally begun paying attention to politics and watched with exasperation the tragicomedy of the debt ceiling extension, it may have come as a shock that the Republican Party is so full of lunatics. To be sure, the party, like any political party on earth, has always had its share of crackpots, like Robert K. Dornan or William E. Dannemeyer. But the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital center today: Steve King, Michele Bachman (now a leading presidential candidate as well), Paul Broun, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Allen West. The Congressional directory now reads like a casebook of lunacy.
Source: truthout: Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult
I copied and pasted a bit more than I usually do but I found it fascinating. The article is from last year but still relevant considering today’s policitlca climate in the US. I definitely fall under the “liberal” spectrum in the US but then again President Obama would be considered a Conservative in my country. Socially I’m definitely left leaning, I’m pro gay marriage, pro choice, pro environment but fiscally I’m pretty conservative. Still listening to the Republican party preach fiscal responsibility is pretty ridiculous, yes Clinton started the housing deregulation but it was the GOP that took it and ran off the damn financial cliff!
The rise of the tea party just boggles the mind too, the good ole US of A is the only developed country in the world without universal health care… I know Americans love to tell everyone that they have the best health care in the world blah blah blah and my usual counter is simple. The US scores very poorly compared to other developed countries in cost/care ratio, infant mortality rate and life expectancy. I’m relatively young and healthy, I don’t need health care now but I’m glad my taxes support a system that won’t bankrupt me should I get sick.
Supply side economics is also a crock, it doesn’t work and the US’ wealth inequity is growing larger and larger… Corporate profits are up and the rich get richer much faster while everyone else gets poorer. Heh I like the chart that shows China’s income inequity (ranked 81st) is better than the US (ranked 93rd).
As I watch the US train wreck, it scares the heck out of me seeing as Canada is going down the same route… Got to give the GOP credit though, they know how to play the game of politics much better than the left.
