The Core Issue Between Republicans and Democrats

          Republicans and Democrats have been ideologically opposed to one another since people first began calling themselves republicans and democrats.  In the day to day arguments taking place as one side of the isle opposes the other, we seem to have lost sight of the fundamental ideals pitting these two diametrically opposed political ideologies against one another.

          One of the core arguments could be described as individual freedom vs. social responsibility.  While Republicans clearly don’t want anyone to dictate if or how they should spend their money helping others, democrats seem more willing to accept the premise that as members of a civilized society, we all have a responsibility to take care of those who have problems taking care of themselves. 

In the Republican view, everyone should be free to choose who they want to lend assistance to.  They view the idea of being taxed to support public assistance programs as a fundamental infringement on their freedom to choose not only who they want to help but whether they want to help.  They often argue government waste and inefficiency in programs designed to help the poor are reasons to do away with those programs though this argument only serves to obscure their real concern that they don’t like being forced to spend money on something they would not spend it on if they had a choice.

Democrats on the other hand argue that unless there is some type of social net to provide assistance to the poor we will all wind up living in an “only the strong survive” society where children, the homeless, and elderly are all left to fend for themselves.  Democrats can see bodies lying in the streets outside hospital emergency rooms that were refused medical care due to a lack of insurance.  Republicans argue that the responsibility for taking care of the needy should be left to charities while Democrats insist we should not farm out social responsibility towards one another to altruistic, good-hearted third parties who may or may not be up to the job.

In the ideal Republican world, people would live in walled-off communities defined by race, religion, sexual preference, and class.  The history of what Republicans voted for and against clearly shows that in a Republican world if you were gay you would not be allowed into heterosexual communities just as blacks would not be allowed into white communities etc., etc.  There would be very limited if any government assistance programs in a Republican world void of welfare, food stamps, and government-funded education.  Local tax revenues would determine how clean or safe the streets were in any particular community if there were even any streets in that community.  Given their way, a republican world would support slavery and all manner of inequality.  The only free speech would be that speech that is aligned with Republican views on social norms.  No gays in the military or boys allowed to join the Boy Scouts who show any inappropriate interest in sex.  In the Republican world, the answer to all social problems would be quickly formulated by a demand for longer prison sentences though the problem of how to pay for this could require reducing meals to two a day.  Even reinstituting the death penalty cannot keep up with all the new prisoners entering the system.     

Republicans seem to aspire to the philosophy that if the weak and unfit were allowed to die out the world would ultimately become a better place for those who remained.  The problems of overpopulation would be solved in a matter of a few generations and what would be left is a world filled with self-sufficient Republicans quite capable of taking care of themselves.  Those born into this new social order who failed to live up to the higher standards would either quickly die out or be locked away in a room somewhere by somewhat embarrassed families.  That is if they were willing to provide food and shelter.

The ideal Democratic world would look much different from its Republican counterpart.  There would be no high walls with razor wire separating the rich and poor or Muslims from Christians.  Actually, there would be no poor just as there would be no super-rich as everyone moved into the middle class.  There probably would not be many Christians or Muslims either as an informed public started realizing it was a little foolish to keep spending billions of dollars on superstition.  In the Democratic world, everyone would be entitled to their fair share of the same pie everyone else had to eat from.  No more big slices for the super-rich that left too little for everyone else. 

City parks would once again become places where families could go without the smell of urine from the homeless and mentally ill who had long since gotten the help they needed so they could return to being productive members of society.  The totally unnecessary layer of private insurance companies reaping huge profits from rising insurance rates would be taken out of the mix as government-provided insurance covered all health needs.  Workers would be incentivized by high pay and great working conditions that made work something most people enjoyed while income tax was eliminated and replaced with a purchase tax on nonessentials.

A Democratic world would be one where change was frequent and easy as new and better ideas were allowed to quickly replace old less efficient ones.  Government and social waste would be weeded out of a system committed to improving the standard of living for everyone.  Science would receive more tax dollars than an unnecessarily large military as the fruits of science changed focus from developing more advanced weapons systems to reducing prices of food and energy.  Economic success would become the best weapon in a world where the only war anyone felt any need to fight was a global war for social advancement.

In a unified global community, there would be no need for outdated Republican ideologies tied to paranoia and fear.  That time is quickly passing and the sooner people start realizing that it's time we put away our weapons of mass destruction and join together as one humanity seeking to make each day better than the last.  It's hard to imagine how wonderful life would become in a world without so many worries where everyone shared many reasons to smile.  

Let’s get the ball rolling…  Vote Republicans out of office.