njlauren
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Memphismaster61
Actually, it's a lot more simpler than that.
First of all, BOTH parties are the same side of the coin. Philosophically, they aren't that different today.
The major difference is, Democrats are Santa Claus. They just L-O-V-E giving out money to their friends. As for the people, beginning with the Great Society, whole swatches of our population have been conditioned to accept the free money Dems love to give out. And that has proven out, generation after generation.
Ostensibly, Repubs represent "The Rich." Guess what? Most of the millionaires in Congress are Dems. Anyway, Repubs have the outlook of, "If you work hard enough, long enough, you can be rich too." So, which would you do? Get paid for doing little or nothing, even if it is a bare subsistence level, or work hard for most of your life to have a shot of becoming wealthy?
Both parties give it out, the only difference is where the GOP gives it out. I am so fucking tired of hearing how the GOP leaning states vote that way because they are tired of the government 'supporting those people' on 'my tax dollars'..when many of those people and states rely on the federal government for a lot. Mitch McConnel loves to talk about the 'economic miracle' in his district, the auto plants down there, but part of the reason they are there is because the area gets TVA power at cost, from Tah Dah! Uncle Sam. The southern Pine industry depends on trees planted by the CCC in the depression under Roosevelt; must of the deep south has power because of the TVA, and also because of the rural electrification authority, that laid in power lines because no private company would do it (same for farmers). We spend 100 billion a year on agricultural subsidies, including for Tobacco, in a time of high commodity prices. We have the ethanol boondoggle, that GOP types promote to the tune of 20 billion a year, because it makes corn farmers smile and ag businesses like ADM. Note that in the last election, Mitt Romney promoted increasing defense spending, even though the military is saying that the kind of military we need doesn't justify that. Why? Well, take a look at where defense plants and military bases are located, guess what, Red state land.
The red states also tend to get a lot more of their medicaid funding from the government, education money (down south, on average, 20% of education funding comes from the feds, nationally it is 9%; in my neck of the woods, about 1%).
The difference is the GOP pretends to be the party of personal responsibility, but is the biggest freeloader in many cases on the government. Old Newt Gingrich was a prime example, while fighting with Clinton over budget cuts, withi his 'contract on America', his district enjoyed billions a year in federal pork, Michael Moore did a devastating profile of it on "TV Nation".
And yeah, the democrats do believe in spending, though the current crowd is centrist, closer to the GOP of the 70's, and unlike the GOP, they realize the government does some things much better than the private sector. The Dems believe in spending on education, whereas the GOP wants "redneck nation', cause they know that lot easier to fool idiots with maybe the 3r's then someone who is educated; the Dems believe in research, which the GOP types will tell you is all because of 'private business' (want to have fun? Ask a tea party type where inventions like the internet, integrated circuits, the transistor, fiber optics, carbon fiber, advanced plastics, polymer chemistry, the digital computer and the like came from...and you will get things like IBM, ATT, etc, etc...when all those were done with government research money). Not to mention, of course, corporate welfare, the huge tax breaks they give business who turn around and ship jobs to china, the tax breaks they give the well off who instead of investing in capital formation, put it in offshore bank accounts, and so forth. And not to mention the huge subsidies to rural america, paid for by people in the built up regions, all to keep the base happy. If farmers and the rural areas actually had to pay for their stuff, my tax bills would go down tremendously, since instead of getting back 65c on the dollar as we do in NJ, NY, and Conn, we would get back 1 buck and not have to pay for so much ourselves...all you have to do is look at who votes for the GOP, and you have the answer on who they pay off.
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Gallup,New Study Confirm America`s Starting To Lean Left - 
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