Thursday, January 17, 2008

There is a difference

With the primaries heating up and the prospects of something new for the first time in 8 long years looming, I'm seeing comments here and there about how it really doesn't matter. That electing Hillary or even Obama will just be more of the last 15 years, which weren't so great. I know that the congressional Democrats are cowards, and I know that the likely Democratic nominee will be nearly as beholden to big-money interests as the Republican nominee. But we heard a lot of the same talk back in 2000. Nader was pushing his "there is no difference" message. Gore of 2000 didn't have anywhere near the cachet Gore of 2008 has, and he was perceived as an extension of Clintonian politics. In light of this, I think it's worth reminding ourselves what the differences really are. There are several big things we can reasonably assume would have been different under a Gore administration, and not just in the fantasy SNL sense.

  • No invasion of Iraq.
  • No tax cuts for the wealthy
  • No cuts in family planning funding for providers who do abortion counseling
  • No gutting of FEMA
  • No illegal wiretapping
  • An active agenda promoting carbon reduction
  • No illegal detention and torture
  • No suppression of science from federal agencies


    That's what I can think of off the top of my head. There are certainly things we wouldn't happy with. But I'd give a lot to have this stuff.

  • Posted by

    4 comments:

    Toast said...

    Sing it from the mountaintop, Chris. Both sides are not the same.

    Anonymous said...

    Excellent post, Chris. I'm glad you decided it's time to remind us of some of the reasons we chose to side with the Democrats. A Democrat will NEVER be more of the same stuff we've seen from George II.

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