What bothers me is how much people are so much into the party issue, instead of "lets get it done". You see, once the election is over, it's over. Time to knuckle down an get to work..."working together", 'mind you...to make America a better place. We are not going to get anywhere if we keep fighting it out after the elections. I have said this over and over.
What I find astonishing is of all the so-called educated people in the political world, few recognize the true value of America's current political stance. Is it a republic? Yeah, kinda. Is it a democracy? Yeah, kinda. Guess what? We also have socialist traits. Think about it.
The Labor Movement. Fair Labor Standards Act. FDR's "New Deal". Social Security Program. Unemployment Insurance. Uniform Commercial Code.
FDR himself said, much like what B. Obama and H. Clinton said, "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those that have little."
Then we have communist traits, as well.
Foreign Aid Program. Federal (and state) Dept. of Education. Federal Dept. of the Interior. Federal Dept. of Agriculture. State agricultural development programs. Community Mental Health programs. "Welfare". Civil Rights Act of 1866 (extending the rights of emancipated slaves). Civil Rights Act of 1871 (prohibiting ethnic violence against African Americans). Civil Rights Act of 1875 (prohibiting discrimination in "public accommodations"). Civil Rights Act of 1957 (creation of the Civil Rights Commission). Civil Rights Act of 1960 (creating federally mandated inspections of local voter registration polls). Civil Rights Act of 1964 (prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin by federal and state governments). Civil Rights Act of 1968 (prohibiting discrimination in housing based on race, creed, and national origin). Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (specifying that recipients of federal funds must comply with civil rights laws in all programs).
To us it's "all American", when truly you would be stretching it to say either pure democracy or pure nationalism would be supportive of these. Yeah, I said "the cursed name"- nationalism. Which truly is the parent of Republican party, however, that itself is a suborder of the Democratic-Federalist party, which, in origin, the DNC and GOP split apart from and were literally so closely aligned that Thomas Jefferson wanted nothing to do with either, humorously labeling them as "a bunch of jack asses and lazy scoundrels" (as referred by my American Politics professor's dissertation). I have to dig around and find the report I did on just this subject, as I covered that about a year ago here in college.
But let us dream, if only for a moment. Where would America go, what could America become, if republicans and democrats actually DID start working together in the best interests of America, and not their parties?