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• Tuesday, November 18, 2008 10:04 AM

  Isn't bipartisanship just another name for the two parties coming together?

  I was under the impression that political observers were telling us that the two parties, Democrat and Republican, were more or less one party with two wings. The basis for this argument involved the fact that the large donors for both parties were pretty much the same corporations and business groups. The fact that there were small individual donors might give one party or the other a distinctive flavor, but the fact is, it's all one animal at the moment.

  Now, when the politicians tell us they are going to become less partisan, they are saying that the policies of each party are becoming more and more similar because of the increasing influence of their big donors and the decreasing influence of the small "spicey" donations.

  I suppose this is why there was very little disagreement about the wars. Both parties support them. This is why there is so little disagreement about torture, surveillance of the population, and the general gutting of the Constitutional framework of our democracy. All of these "reforms" are pushed by both parties because they are in the interest of their donor base.

  If there have been any recent squabbles in Congress or between Congress and the President, mostly they have been generated by disagreements within the corporations. The disagreements have been about how to divide up the spoils of the country so that each group is able to rip off as much as possible.

  These facts seem incontrovertible and not surprising.

  —steven andresen Read steven andresen's other letters
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