Whatever “it” is the news media thinks both sides do? They don’t. And pretty much never have done. Though our corporate press insists Democrats and Republicans are variations on the same theme, they could not be more dissimilar. If the last decade has demonstrated anything – again and again and again – it’s that Democrats run for office because they want to govern their constituents – and America. Republicans do it in order to rule – everyone and everything. See the difference?

How did it come to this?

Maybe a better question is “has it always been like this?” Yeah, it has. And that’s because there has always been just two sides (and no more) to American politics.

It started with slavery.

Either one was for it or against it. There was no and is no middle ground. Yet, as dead as slavery should be, ironically, it’s the Party Of Lincoln who’d bring slavery back in a heartbeat. That’s why those are places that find a minimum wage abhorrent. Having to pay someone a minimum wage makes it harder (but not impossible) to enslave them.

The Supreme Court, this term, has consistently demonstrated that same Republican preference for ruling over governing. But then, the whole point of hijacking the judicial branch – the SCOTUS especially – was to break the balance of power so as to seize the government. Reversing Chevron will accomplish exactly that.

Never mind what elected representatives want – because their constituents want it. And never mind what the executive branch wants to do because of the authority granted it by We The People. Forget what experts and experience can contribute to our problem solving. Instead, let’s go with the terror simmering in the guts of rabid white racists – and the judges they appointed to manifest their worst fears into reality where the rest of us live.

It’s important to remember that, at the nation’s founding, we weren’t one hundred percent for independence from English royalty. Even after the Revolutionary War ended and American democracy began, about one third of American colonists still wanted us to be a monarchy.

Lots of those people were kinda shocked when George Washington – per the Constitution – transferred power to John Adams. That wasn’t very king-like, they complained.

Our Constitution accommodated slavery. That’s why there’s an Electoral College. It’s why the Senate’s design favors rural states (friendly to slavery) over urban states. Ever ask yourself why there are two Dakotas? What, were there too many Dakotans for one? Why is Idaho a state separate from Washington (state)? More people live in LA County than live In Idaho. We both have two senators fighting for us.

Our two political parties have not represented the same people or fought for the same principles all along. Modern Republicans may call themselves “The Party Of Lincoln”, but that’s literally in name only. If you read the GOP’s founding principles from back when it started in 1854 (in Ripon, WI), you’d swear they were modern day Democrats.

The shift was already well under way when Teddy Roosevelt quit the GOP to run independently as a Bull Moose. It was Republicans – during WWII – who harbored a fondness for fascism throughout the war. Blame Richard Nixon and his Southern strategy for finishing the deal and bringing the Dixiecrats and other proudly racist Southern Democrats across into the Republican fold.

The problem Republicans have with democracy is that no one except them wants to do anything their way. They have no interest in free or fair elections because their opponents win most of the time. Because their opponents run on the strength of their ideas while Republicans run on fear, fear and more fear.

Fear is the only idea Republicans have or can relate to. Alas, that works in a tiny corner of America’s Retail Politics Marketplace. So does corruption, cheating and criminal behavior. And, because we prosecute so little corruption, not only do those who use it to get ahead get ahead, but as they get ahead via corrupt means, those corrupt means get normalized.

Cheating to win becomes just “another way to win” whereas it should be a game ender for the person cheating.

Imagine if the penalty for cheating the American electorate made the idea of cheating unthinkable.

The first (and hopefully only) Presidential Debate of the 2024 cycle was a case study in how much we’ve normalized cheating and obfuscating and spewing bullshit as “politics”. The outrage wasn’t over the liar lying nonstop, it was for the decent man caught in the spray of lies – with a two minute time limit to respond.

What the hell are we comparing here? It ain’t apples v apples. More like apples and bullshit. Or – more precisely – Truth and bullshit.

Those two things are as different as governing and ruling.