Republicans and Democrats- A One Party System?

I had written this piece while the primaries were going on...........
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Back when we were studying history in grade school we often had to answer questions that asked us to “compare and contrast” two different rulers. I thought it might be interesting to apply that technique to the two parties trying to “win” the election this fall. Based on publicly available comments and policy statements issued either by the candidates or by their parties I have developed the following position summaries and have come to the conclusion that the differences between them are more of tactics than of principles. Consequently I have identified a “liberal” stance that perhaps can offer a significantly different alternative to the positions of the two major parties.

Issue	Republican Stance	Hillary and OBama / “Low Carb” Republican Stance, (a.k.a. Democratic Stance)	An alternate view based on principles
Right to “Pre-emptively attack” others	America’s Right, bestowed by God	We agree (with the Republicans)	If we are civilized, we do not attack others, we defend ourselves if attacked
Respecting international law	America does not need to obey international laws; heck we don’t even recognize international laws	We agree	Civilized people and countries do not consciously disobey laws, as they know it results in anarchy
Big Business buying Government	GOD means Government of the Dollar, meant for the Corporations	We agree, but will make a little more noise in protest (see the $$ raised by Democrats from Big Biz)	Public funding ONLY for elections, and ban all forms of private or personal funds
Killing living creatures for fun or for sport	GOD told us to hunt- never mind our “pro-life” slogan	We agree, we just don’t think you need an ICBM for hunting	In civilized societies people are actually “pro-life”- all forms of life
Corporate taxes	Corporate taxation is SIN. We would like to eliminate it, but until such a time comes, we will keep reducing it	Cut corporate tax rate by another 5%	Tax corporate income at the highest (individual) tax rate, then make distribution of after-tax corporate income to shareholders free of taxes.
Income tax	Eliminate income tax; if absolutely necessary we can impose a national sales tax	Cut taxes for all but the top 2% of tax payers; eliminate Bus tax cuts for the top 2%- note that the top 2% pay no more than they did (as a %) prior to GWB’s reign	Taxes should be seen as a contribution made by society to help those in need, not as an “incentive.”
Health Care	Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Plan to benefit pharmaceutical companies; Medical Liability Reform to benefit doctors and insurance companies	Promise cut in premiums and expanded coverage without explaining how to pay for it; import drugs from Canada while ignoring the true drivers behind high drug prices	The fundamental question is- how much profit should a civilized person/society make from a fellow human being’s suffering?
Education	“No Child Left Behind”	Fund “No Child Left Behind”	Have to ‘reverse’ the following pay scales that are in existence currently: Median cash pay for Fortune 500 CEOs-- base salary and bonus -- $2,029,500 President’s salary: $400,000 Congressperson’s salary: $158,100 Average Salary for teachers: 45,771
Separation between Religion and State	Church IS State	We believe in religion, but we try to separate government from it	Government policies and actions should be based on objective analysis, not “beliefs”
Energy	We are GOP- “GAS, OIL, and POLLUTION” party	Invest towards reducing oil dependency	Develop and encourage mass transportation, focus on renewable energy sources, and simultaneously hike taxes on gasoline
Environment	Business knows what to do with the environment	Put more funding into enforcement of environmental laws; protect parks	Environmental protection should be funded seriously as a prevention method for short and longer term human health and other benefits.
Corporate control of media, government influence over media	Uh!	Uh!	Public funding of fair media, and mandatory education for all adults

The democratic party policies differ significantly from those of the GOP primarily on the energy and the environmental issues while they are disturbingly similar on issues of security, defense, corporate funded elections, religion and health care. Given the close resemblance between the two parties, we have little to complain about the one party communist system in China and in other such countries.