Charles Smith on the truth about the Republicans and Democrats

[unixronin]

Or, as he titles his article, Two Failed Parties:  The Real Political Narrative of The Past Half-Century.

[...]

If you are still naive enough to be a "party believer," then consider what Bush and Company accomplished when they controlled both the White House and Congress — the largest expansion of government power and spending ever, and the enabling of the biggest credit bubble of all time.

It's pretty hard to play the usual "blame the Democrats" game when you controlled the entire government.

Not that the Democrats are blameless; Rubin and Clinton served Wall Street most ably by enabling the dot-com bubble and setting the stage for the housing bubble.  The Repubs took the baton very smoothly and Wall Street and the bankers picked up some other goodies they'd been pining for, such as a restrictive bankruptcy law.

To understand the present, we need to understand the grand narrative of 20th century politics.  Here is a brief summary.

[...]

Go on, read the whole thing.  He's nailed it right on the mark.  This is the best politico-economic capsule summary of the last 80-90 years in the United States I've yet seen.  This explains exactly why more "business as usual" from the Republican and Democratic parties is just thrashing water.

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