Democrats, Republicans, What's the Difference? Part 2

O.k., so Democrats and Republicans are different, but surely they can compromise and make progress.  Ok., how about we review some of the things people think compromise should be found on:

Social Security:
Democrats want Social Security to be strengthened.
Republicans want it gone.
How exactly do you compromise in this instance?  If you're Republicans, you claim that you're trying to strengthen the program by reducing the benefits (to maintain the program in the long run even though it hurts the underlying point of the program) or by privatizing the program (essentially, hand all that money over to investment bankers to play with).  If you're Democrats, you see through both options for what they really are since you've been hearing Republicans rail against the program for decades.  So... how do you compromise on something so black and white?

Environment:
Democrats want to make the air quality better by moving to electric cars or other alternatives
Republicans like oil...
So we compromise and instead of slowly improving regulations on cars so that they are more efficient and less polluting while maintaining gas cars rather than rapidly building up our electric-car infrastructure and enhancing our public transportation, we keep everything exactly the same (or let them deteriorate).... except California... cause they're concerned with such things as air quality.

Guns:
Democrats don't like guns in the hands of the public because they are concerned about public safety.
Republicans want guns in the hands of the public because it's all about freedom to them.  Freedom to have a gun is as important to them as freedom of speech and significantly more important than freedom of religion.
Ok, so in this case, let's start with the starting volleys for compromise:
Democrats compromise by saying that we only ban new sales on guns, not take any away by force
Democrats compromise further by saying, let's not even ban new sales on all guns, let's just ban sales on semi-automatic rifles... we've already banned automatics so this isn't something that's totally outrageous to consider.
Democrats propose that we ban the sale of high-capacity magazines... we did this in the 1990's, the world didn't fall apart.
Republicans counter these compromise options by saying we don't do anything about guns or any gun parts.
Remind me who's unwilling to compromise?

Democrats, Republicans, What's the Difference? Part 1

"We need more compromising", "I just wish that Democrats and Republicans could meet somewhere in the middle", "Democrats and Republicans are the same".... OY!

Alright, so, let's start with the concept that Democrats and Republicans are the same.... THEY'RE NOT...

Democrats want government to take care of people (which costs money)
Republicans want the lowest taxes there can be and the least amount of government oversight

Democrats want a smaller military presence throughout the world
Republicans want a military that is 3 times larger than the rest of the world's countries' militaries combined (or larger)

Democrats want to send aid to countries (for the most part)
Republicans want to send troops to countries (ok, Hillary too... and some other Democrats; but mostly Republicans and not Democrats)

Democrats want unions to have power because workers have better lives when there is someone advocating for them
Republicans want unions to no longer exist because unions tend to favor Democrats and mean smaller profits for corporations

White Democrats are racists that want to help minorities by trying to look at institutional issues and resolving them and/or providing social safety nets.
White Republicans are racists that want to keep minorities from voting (see the variety of voter suppression tactics that Republicans have been working at implementing, sometimes succeeding but mostly failing due to their unconstitutional nature)

Minority Democrats are similar to White Democrats except that they tend to have a better view of the institutional issues.
Minority Republicans don't exist.  Don't believe me?  Think I'm being flippant?  Take a look: http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/apr/28/mark-pocan/congress-democrats-have-women-and-minorities-repub/
Of their members in Congress in 2017 (combining the two chambers):
                                                     Democrats     Republicans
Total count:                                  239                289
African American:                        48 (20%)        3 (1%)
Hispanic/Latino:                           30 (12%)      13 (4%)
Asian/Indian/Pacific Islander:      16 (6%)          0 (0%)

Say it with me, minority Republicans in Congress do not exist.  Oh, and women...
Women:                                         78 (32%)      26 (9%)

Democrats want everybody to have health care, regardless of financial background
Republicans don't... yeah, not much else to say there

Democrats want to listen to scientists
Republicans want to listen to corporations

Democrats want us to convert to renewable energy sources because they're better in terms of the environment in general but also better for the populace (fossil fuels cause health issues in surrounding communities)
Republicans want us to use coal, natural gas, and oil... because ... corporations

Democrats want to do SOMETHING about climate change
Republicans, until recently, have refused to state that climate change is real, and now, don't want to do anything about it.

Democrats don't really care all that much about illegal immigration as long as the illegal immigrants aren't causing harm to the US (generally speaking, they pay taxes, don't commit as many violent crimes as US Citizens, and use up fewer government resources than US Citizens)
Republicans want to get rid of all illegal immigrants regardless of whether they are committing further crimes beyond being here.

Democrats want to fund social programs
Republicans don't want taxes to pay for social programs so... 

Democrats want to get rid of all civilian-held guns but are willing to compromise and only ban new sales of semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines.  They'd also like the CDC to study gun deaths the way that it studied automobile deaths
Republicans want to arm everybody and are willing to compromise by ... arming everybody?  They also feel that allowing the CDC to study gun deaths would lead to gun regulations and therefore are fervently against any such research.  Yes, if they think that the CDC researching gun deaths will lead to proposals about regulations because, you know, gun deaths can bee prevented, and that this would be bad and therefore they have prevented any research from taking place. No, seriously, look this up.  This is insane.

In my next post, we'll discuss compromising...