I'm reminded of the way that the Murdoch press got behind Blair once Murdoch recognised the pro-Corporate New Labour reality.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

But what they fail to see and critique is that the Democrats really have nothing different to offer. I would argue that the Republican bashing we are witnessing is an attempt by mainstream media to give the American voter the impression that there is actually a choice... whereas in fact there is none.

Had you said, "very little difference" you'd have a more valid point; there's certainly not as much difference as most Eurotribbers would like to see, but that's a different point and we aren't representative of American voters.

The same kind of thing was said back in 2000 - are you seriously suggesting that things would be just the same now if Gore had become President? Obviously not - Bush and Cheney were concerned to find excuses to attack Iraq - Gore wasn't, nor would he have opposed any positive steps to combat climate change - quite the opposite - though he would have met great opposition.

There are even significant differences between the Democrats:

The argument began during the Democratic debate, when the moderator -- Carolyn Washburn, the editor of The Des Moines Register -- suggested that Mr. Edwards shouldn't be so harsh on the wealthy and special interests, because "the same groups are often responsible for getting things done in Washington."

Mr. Edwards replied, "Some people argue that we're going to sit at a table with these people and they're going to voluntarily give their power away. I think it is a complete fantasy; it will never happen."

This was pretty clearly a swipe at Mr. Obama, who has repeatedly said that health reform should be negotiated at a "big table" that would include insurance companies and drug companies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/opinion/17krugman.html

Cf.:

Opinionator is struck by the good news the figures hold for two candidates who've been on the outside looking in of late:

    On the Democratic side, Edwards performs best against each of the leading Republicans. In addition to beating Huckabee by 25 percent and McCain by 8 percent, the North Carolina Democrat beats Romney by 22 percentage points (59 percent to 37 percent) and Giuliani by 9 percentage points (53 percent to 44 percent) ...

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/the-stealth-candidates/index.html

The fact that the differences aren't as great as we'd like to see doesn't mean there are no differences, much as we might deplore the fact that they are not great. What's needed is support for the differences we favour and encouragement to go further - not generalized dismissals which encourage apathy.


Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.

One side has candidates who want to begin withdrawing from Iraq, while the other not only refuses to withdraw but wants to start another war in Iran.  One side is proposing universal health care, while the other side says the health care problem is all the fault of the government.  One side is proposing measures to reduce CO2 emissions, while the other side doesn't even acknowledge the existence of climate change.

Are the Democratic leaders in Congress a bunch of spineless weasels?  Yes.  Should Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (and the people of San Francisco and Vegas for voting for them) be thrown off a cliff?  Yes.  But this talk of there being no differences between the candidates of the two parties is nonsense.

What a different world we might live in if, in 2000, so many didn't believe that bullshit about Al Gore and George W. Bush.  (And, no, I'm not blaming Ralph Nader.)  We'd be on our way to ditching the oil, we wouldn't be in Iraq, the national debt would be about half what it is now (and a significantly smaller chunk of our national income than it was in 2000), and we probably would've dealt with the health care crisis by now.  And, most importantly, 3800 of our soliders, along with countless Iraqis, wouldn't be dead.

But, no, millions believed and continue to believe that there was and is no difference -- proving that religion is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.