The party's have cast their lots in oh so different ways....

[WCGreen]

As a participant in party politics for over 35 years of my life and also someone who was up close and personal with the process of government for many of those years, I have seen it all...

Backroom deals, out right betrayals and so much lying that if that Pinocchio story were true and applied to politicians, there would be nothing but noses in the halls of all our various governments.

I have also seen principled men and women stake it all on something they truly believe in.

But through it all, while given the chance to observe the process, I came to some general conclusions about how the Democrats and Republicans approach government.

The republicans are more interested in getting elected than in governing. They truly believe that the government that is best is the government that rules the least, at least until it comes to their big donors. And that fits very well with their mantra of less government, less regulation and the ineptitude of government as a whole. It's easy to placate those deep pockets by gutting government regulations.

It's a win win situation for the grand old party.

If they fuck things up royally, well they can blame the system that they have made a career railing against.

They just have to muck things up, make it fail and they win.

So essentially, they are in perpetual campaign mode. The way they approach politics is the same way they approach governing; say whatever it takes.

It's easy to always be against something, especially when there is a very large swath of Americans that distrust government in any shape and form.

The Democrats, on the other hand, truly believe in the good that we can do if we all work together. They want government to succeed and they want it to work. Of course there are the sleaze balls who only want it to work for them and their donors, but by and by, the Democrats believe in the efficacy of government.

It's hard to campaign when what you are basically selling is a leap of faith. Trust me, I can change things for the good.

And once the democrats get in office, they try hard to get things done. They are willing to compromise thinking that as long as we keep going forward, we will eventually get to that promised land.

Of course we look at the promise of the candidate and hope that he/she can bring about change. It's not just president Obama, it's almost every democrat that runs runs on.

It basically comes down to trust me, I have a vision vs. trust me, that guys vision will take stuff from you and give it someone else.

And that is, to me, the essence of politics in this country. Has been for the three plus decades I have been at this game.

Of course there are always variations on the theme, but Republicans are afforded the luxury of always being able to operate in campaign mode while the Democrats at least try to govern once they are in office.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I think that the fact that the Republicans are always in campaign mode

makes it possible for them to always be putting on a show.

Isn't campaigning mostly for show?

It's much more compelling than promising to solve things.

They get folks all stirred up about issues that don't really matter, but that strike at the heart...

And we wonder why we don't seem able to do that, and still run things...

Recommended.

[WCGreen]

2. True Dat

[eNrG]

3. When will we learn

It is simple really. Once you give monetary control to a private group your nation is no longer sovereign. So when we created the Federal Reserve with our wonderful president Wilson. We essentially were on a path to what we have now which is a single party running the entire system. The banking party.

Now, republicans and democrats pick fickle issues to divide the public and ultimately run the country the very same way. More war, bigger federal government, less state and local control.

When we realize that local is the solution and dump a our current Federal/Global model. We may then begin to address our real issues which are energy and sustainability.

See, we should have never allowed such large corporations. power companies, banks, governments, ect. ect. Something about humanity that does not allow humans to control others lives. So we must device systems that work around this fact.

Our founders had the principles correct, yet they had to work within their bounds at the time. I am reading the federalist papers for the first time and they were correct. I mean how well would any of us do convincing the entire country to completely re-engineer our entire society??

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Welcome to DU, eNrG...

I suspect that people were willing to completely re-engineer our entire society at the time of the Federalist Papers simply because they had come here to get away from doing things the old way.

They wanted a revolution.

But now, not so much.

We like our comforts, and we mostly have them. It's much harder to move our society now.

:hi:

[Siouxmealso]

5. I agree

As someone who worked on LBJ's campaign as a teenager, I've seen it all and I share your observations.

I would add that democrats run for office to solve problems, while republicans run for office to simply stop the democrats.

Think about it. Democratic campaigns are always about ideas for ways government can help you, while Republican campaigns are always about reversing something the democrats have done or "getting government off your back."

[WCGreen]

6. Exactly....

Then we are all at the whim of a totally free market and we all know how good that turns out...

Don't get me wrong, I love the Free market for what it does best, but to provide necessary services in a fair and equitable way, give me government...

[eNrG]

8. Free Market

We need government, but a Federal one is wrong.

Since the income tax, also from our friend Wilson. The Federal government has had a tool that they can pick and choose who benefits. This allows some businesses to take advantage of tax benefits and others cannot. This is not a free market and can never be one. I attempted to start a renewable energy business in my state, which I currently run and have run for 4 years. I have not been able to get any assistance of any form from anyone; loans, tax credits, grants, ect. ect. Meanwhile my government gives millions in tax credits to their select businesses in my sector as well as millions in grants and funding.

Free market?? Never had we ever had a free market since the Federal Reserve and the Federal Income tax. If we eliminate the Federal governments size and power we can solve our problems.

The only thing the Fed Gov should do is, Defense (Not Empire), Transportation, Disaster Relief, Foreign Relations. Nothing else.

Let the states do this and we gain control of our markets and our money. What sense does it make to send your money to the Fed's to have it trickle back to the States?? How energy inefficient is this and how wasteful is this? How many people then go to the Federal Government to try and get some of this money/power??

Do you guys not yet realize that you enemies are not Rep's and Dem's but the entire idea that we need to stand on a platform of anything but the truth and what is right. How do you take a side of a group that is and has never been correct on anything.

The reason is we have been arguing about the wrong issues for 100 years. Cleverly devised arguments from our benevolent leaders. You still defend your government after all the harm it has caused to its people and the planet. It is time to take our power back and reduce the size and power of the Federal gov.

[eNrG]

7. Silly

I don't agree with this statement. Recently this is true, perhaps in the last 50 years or so. They have chosen topics and ideas basically make no difference to how our country functions. Both parties perpetuate our never ending wars, grow the size of the federal government (which is unconstitutional), grow the size and powers of the federal reserve (the real problem) and take powers away from individual and states.

The issue is, we are controlled by large banks and corporations that both run our government and the governments of the world with fake paper they made out of thin air. Watch Creature from Jekyll Island (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu_VqX6J93k). This explains the monetary issue we face. See everything is backwards to what actually benefits the entire society or planet.

To me business should be of net benefit to society, which is not true right now. The reason for all this is central planning central control and centralized power. It always corrupts which is why our country was separated into smaller power centers/States. When Wilson moved the Senates election to a National one, he took the State vs. Federal power struggle out of the equation. Before, the senators were elected by the state governments, which means that they would fight for state rights or lose their jobs. This made the Congress divided by interests; the senators wanted more State control while the House wanted more Federal control.

So this system never accomplished much because they can never agree. It was by design.

So for the last 100 years congress has had no reason to protect state's or individual rights. Thus we are really fighting a one party system, Federal/Progressive system basically run by the Federal reserve and a small group of people. This is fact, this is not debatable, a small group of people run this planet. Our entire world is fighting the SAME evils, central control. See if we localize we eliminate the need of a Federal gov't and we can then begin to identify the real problems and not this so called issues.