May I sneak in an opinion or two?
I can’t really comment about American politics as I only know the basics:
Republicans = our Conservative Party (Cameron/Thatcher/Churchill), only a little more to the Right.
Democrats = our Labour Party ( Blair/Brown), only a little less to the Left.
On the subject of the similarity between the parties, well, it SHOULD be a good thing. Perhaps people are more willing to come to a consensus these days and agree that compromise is a better way to run a country than lurching from Left to Right and back again. Some European countries have gone from Feudal to Nazi to Communist to Democracy in one human life span….that’s not good for several reasons!
However, we’ve ended up with a bland, self-serving political class who indeed come from the same schools (most noticeably Eton) and universities (Oxford and Cambridge of course) and are completely out of touch with the reality of ordinary citizens’ lives. I can tell you that there is a great deal of resentment building up in Britain about this as wages stagnate, social mobility has all but ceased, mass European and Non-EU immigration has put pressure on our public services/resources (although provides cheap labour for the Right and more precious ‘diversity’ for the Left/Liberal) and owning your own home has become a distant dream for millions of hard working people….oh, and for the first time in their history the charity ‘Save the Children’ ran an ad campaign asking for donations to help them feed HUNGRY BRITISH CHILDREN!!
But what to do? If we don’t vote are we disrespecting people who died so we could be free…or if we do, are we simply supporting the status quo?
I don’t have an answer except to say: try to make a successful life for yourself and your loved ones DESPITE politicians and be a Good Samaritan to others along the way.
I’ll get off me soap box now!
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