This is wildly false. Even if you were to argue that both parties are equally corrupt (which you could not actually do), then you would still have to admit that it was conservatives who pushed for Citizens United and McCutcheon. Those rulings essentially put every politician up for sale by arguing that money constitutes free speech and that corporations are equivalent to voters. Are both sides currently forced to cater to the highest bidder to get elected? To some extent, yes. But even under that unfair pressure, progressive candidates have been able to maintain more moral and ethical behavior in both personal and legislative performance than any conservative or libertarian. Period.
I agree. One party is overrun with religious zealots, the other with politically correct meat puppets droning on about wealth redistribution and who desire to crush free speech/expression.
Ho hum. Here comes the both sides are bad So nothing matters argument again. That's bullshit! Both sides did not shut down the government. Both sides did not put children in cages. Both sides did not alienate our international allies. Both sides did not weaken environmental protections. Both sides did not cut taxes on the rich and increase our national debt. Both sides did not steal an election. And on and on.
One side only cares about themselves getting richer and harming minorities. The other side screws up once in a while but generally works hard for the betterment of people and civilization.
Wow, you really hate the Democrats ?
@TheMiddleWay Obviously you can't tell there there's a qualitative difference between the Democratic and Trump shutdowns. The Dem shutdowns were about funding for Medicare, education, the environment, and public health (you guess which side), while the Trump shutdown is strictly about feeding his ego for his dumbass wall!
Both sides care only about themselves.
It really takes an emotionally ignorant moron to think that there is any equivalence whatsoever between the regressive conservatives and libertarians, who seek to do nothing but enrich an elite at the expense of everyone else, while progressives seek to raise everyone's standard of living and also raise the standard of ethics and humanitarian morality. Someone blind to ethics and humanitarian morality is the kind of person Hillary rightly called "deplorable". Of course they don't want to admit it, LOL.
What this is really about is that people are so politically blinded they think that their party can do no wrong. Put another way the Republicans feel that their own can do no wrong and the Democrats can't do anything right. Democrats feel that their own can do no wrong and the Republicans can't do anything right.
@HomeAloneSunday no Republican that I am aware of excuses treason from their own party.
Overly simplistic false equivalency.
Of course that's the point.
Until the "left" and the "right" grow up and learn to cooperate and collaborate, the problems will continue.
and, in my opinion, that will NEVER happen as long as religious evangelicals control the GOP and are in power.
They are so diametrically opposed on almost every issue that that seems highly unlikely.
this is, pardon me, total crap. [msnbc.com]
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@TheMiddleWay yes of course they did; congress had nothing to do with it, right? learn your history. and that picture of a dem looks just like a trumpkin, NOT a dem.
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I agree polarization is an issue. Getting closer to the center is best. Just need to move the center to the lefT lol
the center is farther left than we think. that happens to be a good thing )
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@OwlInASack it's all perspective isn't it?
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@OwlInASack in some quarters, maybe even most quarters... but there are still perfectly nice, albeit naive, people who don't like trump but still get their news from unconfirmed sources and believe stuff they oughtn't. those people are more likely to believe this "equally to blame" line.
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@OwlInASack me? no i have a weak stomach.
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Both sides are not equally to blame.
The newly Democratic House has passed at least 10 bills aimed at reopening government. The Republican Senate finally voted on two and both failed.
Republicans have tied themselves to Trump and his deeply unpopular wall fantasy. Democrats want a clean bill without.
And BTW... Breaking news... Hillary still has not been indicted.
I've noticed a trend in the bothsiderism shutdowns you reference. The Democratic side was trying to help regular people with things like the environment and healthcare. The Republican side was trying to help rich folks avoid taxes. So yes, dems and reps aren't the same based on the shutdown[s].
In the Obama shutdown in 2013, Republicans, who made it clear they wanted to derail the Affordable Care Act by stripping funds from it, attempted to attach to a funding bill provisions to defund or delay aspects of the act. Democrats refused to support any such move. The shutdown lasted 16 days.
There were two shutdowns during the Clinton presidency. The one you referred to was the second.
From Wikipedia: 'The United States federal government shutdowns of 1995 and 1995–96 were the result of conflicts between Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress over funding for Medicare, education, the environment, and public health in the 1996 federal budget'.
The lead personality for the Republicans was Newt Gingrich.
I like your meme but both parties are not to blame. The cult like worship of political puppets and believing that we need them to run our lives has much to do with what is going on. A simple question in America today would be can you name any person in our history who could do or say what Trump has and still be POTUS? The answer is "no." No you cannot name anyone. Power likes power and that is what is happening in America today. It has nothing to do with what is best for the country.
So which party is to blame and why?
@RobertMartin Why don't you answer his question
@DoctoralZombie apparently trump is still president for some reason. I didn't vote for him, .
@RobertMartin Why would a party be to blame when an ignorant man shuts down the government? Trump said he would be proud to shut it down if he did not get his money, so he shut it down. That's pretty plain and it is not how to negotiate. Now he has caved and government will re-open. Who knows the mind of Donald Trump? Trump himself cannot answer that because he lies too much.
I would say that both parties have a part to play in the problems in 'merca, but I certainly would not say both parties are "equally" to blame by any stretch of the imagination.
@OwlInASack I hear ya bro.