Monday, October 08, 2018

They are all into big money anyway. Might as well choose the Democrats for better culture

Seems like there is a bigger difference between Democrats and Republicans than ever before; or at least in my memory. Democrats are much more liberal. Republicans more conservative.

I have quite a few friends who still think the Democrats are in bed with money and big business. I guess that's true. There's lots of money and big business that's liberal also. I think a lot of the red versus blue divide is about CULTURE rather than money. All the money isn't necessarily on the conservative side. We, liberals, do have our highly financed allies. We might as well not shoot ourselves in the foot by trashing them.

Even if allies have money, they can still support the cultural values of graduated taxation, domestic spending, universal healthcare, environmental preservation, gay rights and so forth.

Aside from the big money behind Democrats as well as Republicans, I notice that a lot of grassroots level liberals are kind of yuppie. Upper middle class. There are yuppie conservatives also. Might as well not totally trash a political party, the Democrats, for being corporate when many liberals are, themselves, upper middle class. The "professional class." Doctors, lawyers, tenured college professors and just about everyone is still driving their cars, using fossil fuels. Prosperous, liberal cities are often places that the poor can no longer afford to live decently.

We all have to walk the walk at the grassroots level.

I know that there is a problem with too much money corrupting politics. The Koch Brothers and Citizens United Supreme Court decision comes to mind. Still, I remember listening to a Diane Rehm interview, on NPR, where she interviewed a liberal lawyer who argued in favor of Citizens United before the Supreme Court. What? A liberal lawyer! They were supporting the right to speech for large organizations, such as labor unions, environmental groups and so forth. I wondered, if that lawyer was suffering from a case of "not seeing the forest for the trees?" Lots of arguments are based on technicalities, compartmental thinking. We all need to look at the big picture.

Bernie Sanders does earn praise for being able to finance his campaign totally from small donations. Apparently that is unique. Even if some politicians still feel they need to rely on our wealthy allies to get name recognition, we ought to still realize that aside from the money, it's also a cultural divide.

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