Not to be rude Chuck, but you must have been hanging out only with white people if that's your view of the mid-90s, since there was an explosion of immigrant rights organizing, police brutality organizing, and labor union organizing among communities of color during that period.
Yes, white liberals may get passive under Dem Presidents, but everyone else gets the boot partially off their throats and gets some chance to organizing in their communities without the threat of deportation or other attacks. Note that the mid-90s saw some of the most massive legalization of immigrants in American history-- a big contrast to Bush's INS which is doing everything possible to prevent folks from legalizing in favor of deportation.
Given what's happening in the immigration field, anyone who thinks there is no difference between Dems and GOP just betrays a complete racist indifference to the reality of peoples lives these days in those communities.
-- Nathan Newman