So what's the difference?, or, The ravings of a simpleton...

[JustJoe]

What does it matter if the Repubs or Dems win the White House
or the CA gov race or any office? What's the difference between
the most basic Democrat and the most basic Republican? And what
does that have to do with how people are relating to other people
here?

My father was a quiet Repub and my mother was a little quieter
Democrat. I dont remember being forced to think along any
political lines, not blatantly. My first politics was
Ike and Stevenson. Ike was OK, but kind of off, kind of distant
or something. Stevenson was more interesting to me. He seemed smarter,
smart, he had a sense of humor, he spoke as if he were enjoying
himself. I could imagine sittiong around talking to him about
tjhings. Ike was OK but I couldnt imagine being in an interesting
conversation with him.

Then there was JFK and Nixon. Nuff said. And the best of the
bunch since then to me were Carter and Clinton. Johnson was eaten by
the war and a cutthroat wheeler-dealer to his roots, but even then
in his major non-war efforts he showed he cared about poor people and
people of color (at least in this country). And maybe he was just
a good enough man to be properly torn apart finally by that war.

On the Repub side were Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush & Bush. I
wouldnt want to have a conversation with any of them. I
wouldnt want to be friends with any of them. I cant imagine
connecting with any of them on a deep human level.

What makes a Republican a Republican? What makes a Democrat
a Democrat? I mean fundamentally. Down there in the core.

To me, it's this simple: Democrats care about other people
more. I wont say Republicans dont care about other people
but when push comes to shove if it's a matter of money vs.
people, as it so often is in politics, the Republican
will grab that money and squeeze the people by the neck.

That is so simplistic, so unfair, and has so many exceptions
that it might be a kind of a sin to even say it. If I was arguing
against myself I could counter with exceptions and qualifications.
But I'm still saying it because that's the fundamental difference I
see.

Democrats care more about people--other people, besides ourselves--
than the Republicans do.

That's why it's important, isnt it---that some Democrat get
in the WH and get those other awful people out of there? It's
not just ideology, it's not just intelligence (Bush is dumb as
mud but some of those Republicans are plenty brilliant), it's not
only race or gender (at least a few women and blacks are in power
now), or even money exclusively--look at all the millionaire Hollywood
liberals.

Democrats care more about poor people, about working people,
about gay people, about minorities, about women, about people
who arent Americans and who live in other countries.

And yet you'd never know it by what's been going on here.
Some of it is no doubt outside disruptors, but the enemy
seems to me to be more likely within. Within where we forget
why we care so much about this candidate or that candidate.
Within where we hook into our candidate or issue and forget
why it matters, get our ego hooked in there so deep that it's
more like yer pa and my pa stuff than who's going to be the
most important and powerful person in the world.

Within where we forget that at the heart of all this
frantic passion is that basic fact--we care more about
other people. And if that is why it's important--to get
somebody in there who cares, for God's sakes--then why
isn't that just as important here? And now?

If we want somebody in there who is going to fight for us,
for the people, who's going to rise above himself or herself for
the common good, then what are we waiting for as far as
putting aside our childish selfishness ourselves right
now? Why cant we live up to the ideals of the candidates
we are so ready to struggle with passion to help win the
office of the President? Otherwise, if we just put ourselves
and our own hurt and rage first all over the place here,
it just seems like such a betrayal of everything we say
we believe in, such a degradation of everything we say we are.

[vi5]

1. I boil it down to 2 separate but simple philosophies...

Repubs believe "worrying about what is in my best interest will benefit society".

Democrats believe "worrying about what is in societies best interest will benefit me".

The prime example of this is health care. It's naive to think that my life is in any way better by other people not having health care. Not because of any sense of charity or socialism or any of that. But the basic fact that if people don't have healthcare, doctors still need to treat them and if doctors don't get paid then my costs go up and my premiums go up. So even though it's a democratic ideal to have some form of universal health coverage, it's also not strictly some pie in the sky idea that will only benefit those that don't work or those that don't have coverage.

Ultimately it's the difference between big picture and small picture.

[HFishbine]

3. Well Put, (Not to be confused with WIll Pitt)

Both of you.

[Mairead]

4. Very, VERY nice! What a perfect summation!

Major kudos!

[papau]

2. Well said :-)

seems obvious to us in the choir

:-)

now to convince the rest of the country!

:-)

[Skittles]

5. BETTER A BLEEDING HEART THAN NO HEART AT ALL

SO SAYETH SKITTLES.

[greekspeak]

8. Bleeding heart

What kind of attack is "bleeding heart?" I have always know that to have one was supposed to be "bad.' What is so wrong with caring about how people end up? Where's my "contact with me may cause staining on white pants" button?

[salin]

6. Here, hear.

Beautifully sentiments. Timely. I am going to be traveling for a few days - look forward to the respite from DU, and hope a bit of your message is internalized.

Please folks reading this... BE REFLECTIVE... don't just react out of "woohoo... relief from my being bashed after bashing someone else's candidate!" That, will not make the problem go away - but will make it more entrenched.

We have to see when we begin to do this. And we have to drop the... but... I WOULD stop, but I have to correct every other post (and then some) from other nonsupporters.... THAT is an excuse to perpetuate the nonproductive, and even destructive behavior.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

7. You said it. n/t

[Bandit]

9. Gotta say I like your thought process ~ Pretty Basic stuff

But it is even more than that. It has to do with the Environment and basic right and wrong. I guess when you think about it though it all boils down to people; where as it all boils down to money in GOP land.
:thumbsup:

[jfkennedy]

10. The Democratic Party should change its name

My opinion of the Democratic Party is that it should change its name to the Democratic Republican Party. I had voted democrat out of a sort of Nostalgia, saying to myself, anything but a Republican. I never really even researched the way they worked on a day to day basis until the 2000 election.

And my gut feeling about the Party I was voting for so many years was that it was indeed just a Republican Democratic party. Not one democrat opposed the stealing of the election. Then they voted for every bill the Republicans wanted voted in. I knew at that point that the Democratic Party of JFK and before with its support of civil rights, union rights, or human rights, was gone, to be replaced by sellouts to the Republicans.

A true democratic party would not be a reactionary party but it would of been a tool for labor and civil rights leaders to create welfare programs for the poor, and to end the death penalty. These were the civil rights issues of the 70s to present but the Democratic Party sold out to the Republican Party.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

11. JJ thanks for your wisdom and the wakeup call

Glad I checked back and saw this. It reminds me of why I even take the time to participate in the process.