A Tale of Two Parties
Time to end the “both sides” lie
Political parties are human enterprises. Of course they’re flawed. Of course they’re going to have fringes. Pragmatists. Activists. They act as clearinghouses for good and bad ideas. Palatable and unpalatable leadership. I get it.
As a Democrat, I am painfully aware of the occasional bad policies that my party settles for. Democrats have had often to settle for bad policies because they had to play ball to get Republican support (or at least believed it was good politics to…“settle”).
However, one thing has been annoying me for years now when it comes to how the two major political parties are covered in the United States. “Both Sides.”
“Both sides have their problems.”
“Both sides are guilty of this!”
I’m going to say this right now. It’s utter bullshit.
The real tale of the two parties is that one party is worse than the other. Not just slightly worse than the other. Clearly worse than the other.
My opinion is not rooted in partisanship or tribalism; my opinion is based upon my observation of how each party has approached governing since Barack Obama was sworn in 12 years ago.
One party champions selflessness and the shared responsibility that all of us have as Americans to have a functioning society.
The other party promulgates selfishness and encourages the citizenry to wash our hands of each other in the name of “liberty” and “freedom”.
One party actually believes in governing and actually understands that governing is serious work; that governing is the people’s business; and that there’s more to governing than appeasing whiny and bitchy cable news hosts who gaslight their own viewers on a right-wing propaganda television outlet masquerading as a news channel facing competition from even more batshit right-wing propaganda networks masquerading as news channels.
The other party believes in acquiring and maintaining power by any means necessary. This party has no legitimate interest in governing; they want to offer weak counters to so-called “liberal” and “progressive” positions, bitch about “liberals” and “progressives” being “radical socialists”, counting on the fact that their voters have no fucking idea what socialism actually is (and they count on the fact that they have no idea because most of them legitimately don’t have an idea of what socialism actually is — and I say this as a liberal critic of socialism).
One party actually believes in making a serious investment in the well-being of human beings.
The other party believes that the best way to invest in human beings is to pass bullshit, deficit-growing tax cuts with corporate tax savings flowing to stock buybacks rather than a meaningful investment in workers, then add a sunset provision to said tax cut for middle and lower incomes.
One party actually believes in having leaders that are committed to honoring the will of the people.
The other party talks about honoring the will of the people, but will go along with the cult leader’s attempt to subvert the will of voters until it actually gets people killed (5 people in fact — all of whom supported that cult leader; including the officer that upheld his oath to protect the Capitol and died while doing so). Then, rather than deal with the reckoning and embark on much-needed self-reflection, the party goes back to bitching about the same talking points as before, doing the same shit of only offering words that whine (or lie), not words that solve.
One party understands that this country is based upon “small-d” democratic ideals and a “small-r” republican form of government.
The other party tries to sell the idea that there’s no such thing as “small-d” Democratic ideals and the only legitimate republican form of government is when the Republican Party is in control.
One party actually wants to address the pressing needs of this nation by deploying resources that the party correctly assumes is best left to government to mobilize.
The other party wants to pass the buck to private enterprise and let them run amok. Then, when the pitfalls of unencumbered capitalism becomes painfully obvious through laughable wage growth and low income occupations getting crushed every downturn in the business cycle with no robust safety net to alleviate economic pain, blame “liberals” and “progressives” for the environment that so-called “conservative patriots” created for said private enterprise running amok and actually not resolving the issues facing the nation.
One party believes that, as human beings, we actually have a responsibility to care for the world we live in.
The other party believes that natural resources are there for pillaging and any consequences for the environment as a result of said pillaging is just collateral fucking damage.
One party actually cares about problem solving; even if its ideas are sometimes not the greatest.
The other party only cares about defending values that they don’t even adhere to; and then when they are called out as hypocrites, they resort to their familiar line of blaming “liberals” and “progressives”.
One party tries not to elevate grifters. Hell, the party tries pretty hard to avoid being a cult centered around anyone.
The other party not only is open to elevating grifters, but willing to make an entire family of grifters its most powerful faction and acquiesce, cater, submit, and make excuses for their bullshit.
I can trust one party to have the public’s best interest in mind, despite its flaws. The party its not perfect, but it’s committed to being human.
Meanwhile, the other party is morally and intellectually bankrupt. In its Faustian quest for power, they debased themselves, this country, and their own voters.
So I am completely done with the both sides bullshit. It’s just a fucking lie. Political parties aren’t perfect, but the Republican Party is just bad. It’s just fucking bad.
