Doug>>> I'd agree that there's not much diff between Romney & Obama - which will make their campaigns interesting, as they try to maximize the distinctions - but once you get to the Congressional level, there are sharp differences. Look at all the haggling over fiscal policy - even if
the leadership can agree on something, the Rep leadership can't deliver
its rank & file. Thank god for that - it's saved us from bipartisan
austerity.
J>>> One could argue the rightward turn from 1980 on has been achieved by the unified action of all branches of government and that both a de facto and de jure austerity has been imposed on an increasingly greater and greater portion of the the u.s. The unity (or bi-partisan action if you will) has made budget draining war possible, deregulation, "free" trade agreements that kill jobs, given wall street the room to steal money with impunity - and reward, of course - whilst congress benefits from "legal" insider trading. Then there's welfare "reform," bankruptcy "reform," tens of millions with little or no access to healthcare, stagnant wages, massive unemployment and job insecurity, increasing inflation, millions either homeless, insecurely housed, kicked out of their houses, underwater, or struggling to make their mortgages, rents increasing, union busting, the slashing of "entitlements," retirement funds raided by wall street, students and people
who cannot pay their healthcare bills turned into indentured servants for life. Maybe something called "austerity" hasn't been imposed, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck... The further irony is that most of the European countries where some form of austerity has been imposed still have a better social safety net than we do.
Aloha,
J