Which Republican Will You Vote For?

On November 6, we will choose a Moderate Republican--Barack Obama--or a Radical Right Republican--Mitt Romney--to be President of the United States.

Yes, I know that there will be a "Democrat" listed on the ballot, the incumbent president Barack Obama. But the Democratic Party I've always known has disappeared. It is no longer the party of the working class, minorities, the elderly and the poor. That Democratic Party began slipping away about forty years ago and has been replaced by a party beholden to powerful corporate interests.

The political pendulum has swung far to the right. The Radical Right Republican (RRR) Party makes little secret of the fact it is owned and supported by wealthy business interests. Everything they do or legislation they propose is designed to benefit the One Percent. The Moderate Republican (AKA the Democratic Party) is just slightly better. It's loyalty is to wealthy business interests, too, but most Moderate Republican politicians try to temper it with some minor concessions to the middle class.

President Obama may be running as a "Democrat."  But his views and policies are in line with those of the traditional Republican Party of a generation or two ago. He is pro-corporate, pro-military and pro-security state. His views are more in line with former GOP presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and George H. W. Bush than Democratic presidents Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson.

Mitt Romney (though he changes day to day) has mostly acquiesced to the extreme views of the Tea Party, the neocons, the Religious Right and the Grover Norquist supply-siders. What is the accepted belief of today's RRR's was considered John Birch Society- extremism just a generation or two ago.

Unfortunately, it's not just on the presidential level. Every politician in Washington, and on the state and local level, relies on money to get elected.  Especially now that campaign contributions no longer have limits, thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, money has become more important than ever. And those with the most of it have significant influence over our elected representatives. Government, now more than ever, is conducted by legalized bribery. The likelihood of legislation being passed is in near direct proportion to the size of campaign contributions.

 Would you like our wars and foreign entanglements to end? Sorry, both the Moderate and Radical Right Republican parties don't. Would you like to see single-payer universal health care? Sorry, both Republican parties don't. Would you like the civil liberties back that you lost after 9/11? Sorry, both Republican parties don't. Would you like business to be penalized for shipping American jobs overseas. Sorry, both Republican parties don't. Most Americans support these positions, but not the two major Republican parties. If you're looking for democracy, browse in an American history book.

The Moderate Republicans (Democrats) are better than the Radical Right Republicans, but in the final analysis, they are de facto Republicans. No matter which Republican candidate wins, the ultimate winner will be multinational corporations, the military-industrial-security complex, and the One Percent. There is a case to voting your conscience and giving your vote to a third-party candidate. It will make a statement, but as you know, the system is set up so your candidate has no realistic chance of winning.

The President elected November 6 will be a Moderate or a Radical Right Republican. So will virtually every other elected official throughout the country.

Heads they win, tails we lose.