Democrats, Republicans, and America

On Wed, 4 Nov 2009 00:33:07 -0800 (PST), Ilya Shambat <...@gmail.com

The Republican propaganda has had much effect in reaching people both
inside America and without. Coming from Russian immigrants who settled
in Northern Virginia, I saw the effects of this propaganda on both
demographics. I am writing this to correct two commonly-held errors
that resulted from this propaganda. One is that of comparing Democrats
to the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU). The other is that of
equating Republican Party with America and giving it credit for
America and its achievements.

On the first I ask this: What labor camps have Democrats built? How
many millions have they imprisoned and murdered for their political
convictions? What countries have Democrats invaded and made their
satellites by force? All evidence points instead to CPSU-type activity
by Bush Republicans, who have used fraud and corruption to get into
the White House; murdered over a million civilians in Iraq; instituted
torture, even of teenagers; lied to Americans and to the rest of the
world; and have consistently used bullying and deception to push their
party line against public opinion while claiming that they are America
and that the rest of America is not America, when they in fact not
only not America but a minority of America and not its better part
either.

Another error is that of equating Republicans with America and giving
Republicans the credit for all of America's accomplishments. It is
largely for the sake of transparency that this claim put to rest. Here
are the facts:

- The Democratic administrations of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin
Roosevelt won, respectively, the First and the Second World War;
- The Democrats form the vast bulk of America's scientists and
innovators, with over 90% of its Nobel Prize winners being Democrats
and only 3% of academics being Republicans;
- Of America's 10 foremost educational institutions, 9 are in solidly
Democratic states and are centers of Democratic Party's activities;
- The computer industry, which has been the main engine of prosperity
of 1980s and 1990s, is largely Democratic. The personal computer was
invented by a hippie. The computer industry is located in solidly
Democratic San Francisco Bay Area and Washington State, as well as in
the Democratic-voting Northern Virginia. The Democrats make up the
bulk of both its management and its rank-and-file.
- The Clinton Administration gave America its greatest peacetime
economic expansion (the greatest wartime one having been under
Franklin Delano Roosevelt). Its policies created 23 million jobs, the
first balanced budget in three decades, international peace and
prosperity, and a revamping of the government to become efficient and
user friendly (Reagan only whined about the government while being its
head). It also brought about a significant reduction in violent crime
- which grew under Reagan and peaked under Bush Sr. Meanwhile the Bush
Jr. administration added $5 trillion to the debt, with no jobs
created, amid collapsing family incomes, and at the end the worst
economic crisis America has had since the Great Depression.
- Democrats form the bulk of America's teachers and journalists, whose
contributions are not easily measured monetarily but are of greater
significance than those of many far higher-paid professionals.
- Democrats have fought for civil rights, human rights, and women's
rights, while Republicans have done all they could to sabotage all of
the above.
- Democrats have fought to bring to public attention the facts about
global warming. Republicans have done nothing but aggressively deny
reality - on this, as much as on federal debt.

The people who blame all things on "liberal government" or "big
government" or compare American government to the Soviet Union know
nothing of what they're talking about. Without the government
Interstate, the anti-government truckers would not have the roads on
which to deliver the farming goods, created by government-subsidized
anti-government farmers, to the big liberal cities that are the market
for their products. Without the government academia, the academic
research that has been necessary for the hardware and technology that
are at the core of business production would not have taken place.
Without the government Internet, the computerization and Internet
commerce that was the source of 1990s growth would not have been
possible. Whining about taxes was a big trend under the Clinton
administration. Being in the high-income bracket, I had a lot of taxes
to whine about. I did not whine about my taxes, because I knew where
the money was going and saw it as my civic duty to pay it. Under Bush
I would have had less taxes to whine about; but there was a problem.
Like many others, under Bush, I no longer was in the high-income
bracket - or, for some of that time, in any bracket at all.

But beyond personal experience, let us look at the big issues. Who has
given America a $10 trillion debt? Who has aggressively for three
decades denied global warming? Who has done this to the country they
claim to love, and to the children and grandchildren for whose sake
they claim to practice "family values?" It wasn't the Democrats. It is
the Republicans who have done this to America and to their children's
and grandchildren's future.

So to put it shortly: Democrats are not Communists; Republicans are
not America, nor do they deserve credit for America. Case closed.