It used to be—think about it, until recently it didn’t really matter all that much who won an election at the presidential level. Don’t get me wrong, obviously there were differences between the parties. But if I can use a sports metaphor, the differences between Republicans and Democrats, per se, were within the forty-yard lines. Yeah, there’d be differences but actually what Democrats and Republicans had in common was far greater than what they did not.
– Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations (June 1st, 2023)
Besides the “until recently” part, I fully agree with Mr. Haass.
Consider the overlap between Democrats and Republicans. Both support:
- National Security Agency spying on Americans
- CIA
- FBI
- The military invading countries based on lies and murdering civilians
- NATO
- The Federal Reserve
- State involvement in healthcare
- State schooling
- Occupational licensing
- Taxation (sales and income)
- Commercial licensing
- Tariffs
- Immigration restrictions
- Agricultural subsidies
- Increasing military spending
- State police force
- Increasing the Federal Budget
- The drug war
- Food stamps
- Social Security
- FDA
- EPA
- OSHA
- Capital gains tax
- Bank bailouts