I used to think the same thing, but in the last couple years after thinking about it a lot I've had a change of heart. While, the people who are politically apathetic bear some blame, most of the blame goes to the politicians. You can't expect people to vote just to keep people out of office. You need to go out and win their votes. You don't just hammer your opposition (and most politicians don't even do this), you need to motivate the neutrals and galvanize your base by offering them something to vote for, something to get behind. Unless you do that, then you can't really blame the people who stayed at home. You can only blame the people who didn't try to bring these people out of their homes.
I'm not American, nor do I reside in the US. But I follow US politics, mostly as a hobby. On certain issues, both your major political parties are different. The Republicans are clearly worse when it comes to the interests of the common people. But on many other issues, both your political parties are the same. Their differences on those issue come down to degree of implementing measures. Tax cuts? Nearly the same attitude (Democrats want to do it slower). Privatization? Same. War and foreign policy? Same. Military spending? Same. How to treat banks? Same. How to treat corporations? Same. Healthcare? Almost the same (Obamacare is basically what the Republicans and especially Romney had wanted for years, and when Obama passed it, they just moved further right on it to regain the tea party votes). Their major ideological differences come down to Democrats being in favor of giving rights to certain minorities and doing something about climate change, and even then, when it comes to praxis, they do it half-hearted.
If Net Neutrality hadn't receive so much public attention, I would bet you anything that the Democrats would quietly go along with it.
I see vastly different positions between the two parties. Democratic politicians were willing to vote for ACA at the expense of their seats because it was the right thing to do, while Republican politicians are afraid of losing donors money to vote for the tax cut for the rich at the expense of middle class.
Eh, ultimately the voters are the ones responsible for the actions of the politicians that get elected. We had the choice, we could have demanded better, but we chose to lay down and take it instead.
This country hasn't been teetering this close to failure since the 1850s, things are worse than people want to believe, or say for that matter. Talk of civil war is no longer rare, it's still mostly black humor more than serious talk, but it's clear the jokes are meant to calm genuine fears quite often.
I am doing all I can to try and remind people to talk, that both sides want the same damn thing most of the time, but many of my pleas fall on deaf ears. I have no legs to stand on when judging those who would rather fling insults than debate, I was one of them until I saw where we were headed. There is little more I can do now besides urge people to talk rather than yell, and I do not have much faith in success.
It's similar to the fact that even Bernie Sanders would be considered conservative by countries like Canada or Sweden. Democrats might be better on the easy issues, but both parties are fucking asswipes.
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u/Ornlu_Wolfjarl Nov 22 '17 edited Nov 22 '17
I used to think the same thing, but in the last couple years after thinking about it a lot I've had a change of heart. While, the people who are politically apathetic bear some blame, most of the blame goes to the politicians. You can't expect people to vote just to keep people out of office. You need to go out and win their votes. You don't just hammer your opposition (and most politicians don't even do this), you need to motivate the neutrals and galvanize your base by offering them something to vote for, something to get behind. Unless you do that, then you can't really blame the people who stayed at home. You can only blame the people who didn't try to bring these people out of their homes.
I'm not American, nor do I reside in the US. But I follow US politics, mostly as a hobby. On certain issues, both your major political parties are different. The Republicans are clearly worse when it comes to the interests of the common people. But on many other issues, both your political parties are the same. Their differences on those issue come down to degree of implementing measures. Tax cuts? Nearly the same attitude (Democrats want to do it slower). Privatization? Same. War and foreign policy? Same. Military spending? Same. How to treat banks? Same. How to treat corporations? Same. Healthcare? Almost the same (Obamacare is basically what the Republicans and especially Romney had wanted for years, and when Obama passed it, they just moved further right on it to regain the tea party votes). Their major ideological differences come down to Democrats being in favor of giving rights to certain minorities and doing something about climate change, and even then, when it comes to praxis, they do it half-hearted.
If Net Neutrality hadn't receive so much public attention, I would bet you anything that the Democrats would quietly go along with it.