Not Much of a Real Difference

As we creep toward the next election season, we are starting to hear the usual banter more and more: Progressive-minded citizens need to get behind this or that Democrat OR ELSE a Republican might win and that will start the beginning of the end of America as we know it.

I've got news for all the Democratic Party faithful, the "America as we know it" is already gone. It began to vanish in big chunks during the Reagan administration and this process has accelerated ever since.

If you believe that Democratic leaders are more responsible than those from the GOP, take a look at the following three stories ripped from the headlines in this week alone.

Exhibit #1: Leaders Reach Patriot Act Deal
Top lawmakers in the House and Senate reached a deal to extend the Patriot Act for four years, a week before key provisions were set to expire.

The pieces of the law that allow the federal government to compel businesses to release records, issue roving wiretaps, and monitor so-called “lone wolf” terror suspects were set to run out on May 27. The outline of the deal between Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) still needs to pass both chambers in the next seven days to avoid a lapse in the law.

Reid went to the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon to file cloture on the bill, setting up a vote for Monday night...

Even though the Democrats control 2/3 of the legislation-making authority, they have agreed to pass legislation to strip Americans of our civil rights.

Exhibit #2: Democrats’ Polite, Insidious ‘Pro-Union’ Arm Twisting
But once again displaying their unique talent for alienating their base, Democratic governors in a host of states are moving in the opposite direction.

While loudly proclaiming their distance from the blatant arm-twisting methods of Walker, Kasich and company, these governors are busy resolving budget crises in terms that will not even slightly inconvenience the fortunes of the super-rich and corporations, both of which have emerged from the Great Recession with a bigger share of income and record profits.

Instead, numerous Democrats are trying to fill budget gaps by demanding extensive concessions from their public employees, along with higher fees and service cutbacks. Shamus Cook in Truthout has compiled a “short list” of states where Democratic governors are pressuring public unions to accept diminished legal rights and/or swallow massive contract concessions...

Ah yes, the party of labor is going out of its way to stick it to the very unions who helped to get them elected!

Exhibit #3: US Arms Sales at Odds with Words
ON THE same day President Obama pressed again for peace in the Middle East, the Associated Press reminded us that the United States cannot help itself from flooding the region with the instruments of war, reporting that the nation is “quietly expanding defense ties on a vast scale’’ with Saudi Arabia.

How vast? The part that has been highly publicized is the new $60 billion arms sale made to the Saudis because of the ongoing threat of Iran. The deal sends Saudi Arabia 84 new F-15s and upgrades to 70 F-15s. It also sends them about 180 Apache, Black Hawk, and Little Bird helicopters, as well as anti-ship and anti-radar missiles. In officially announcing the sale last fall, Andrew Shapiro, the US assistant secretary of state for political affairs, said the sales were part of “deepening our security relationship with a key partner with whom we’ve enjoyed a solid security relationship for nearly 70 years.’’

But there are other emerging aspects of the security relationship the Obama administration is not so candid about. The AP also reported on an obscure project to create a special elite security force that would fall under the US Central Command. The force would have up to 35,000 members "to protect the kingdom’s oil riches and future nuclear sites." It would be separate from Saudi Arabia’s military and its national guard and would involve tens of billions of dollars in additional military contracts...

Under the leadership of a Democratic president, the US continues to be one of the largest exporters of military arms in the world!

On issue after issue, the supposedly vast chasm between the Democrats and GOP is mostly a contrived mirage. And I didn't even bring up both parties' acquiescence to the continued Wall Street ripoff of Main Street!