"Dems, GOP aren't just different sides of coin"

[TomCADem]

Here is nice article about the false equivalency that masquarades as journalism. As House Republicans openly advocate causing the U.S. to default to gain a political advantage, watch as the media strives mightily to equally blame both Democrats and Republicans.

http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2013-01-12/dupuy-dems-gop-arent-just-different-sides-coin

Are the left and the right in this country pretty much the same except for ideology? Are liberals and conservatives basically two sides of the same coin? One side you have one opinion, the other side an opposing view. Are the parties in America symmetrical?

* * *

It’s a go-to (think lazy) response to any criticism of the right: The left does it too. Even more so, probably.

* * *

Whatever you say about Republicans, they’ll try to pin that tail on the donkey. This false equivalency benefits the right. A pox on both your houses disengages people from the political process, and that helps Republicans. As we’ve seen in the midterm elections, when fewer people vote, more Republicans get into office.

The two parties are not, as we say in math, opposite equals. At all. Especially in math. As Bill Clinton said in his 2012 Democratic National Convention speech, “Now, people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. What new ideas did we bring to Washington? I always give a one-word answer: Arithmetic.”

[UCmeNdc]

1. Krugman schools Noonan: Don’t negotiate with Republicans who want to ‘blow up the world’

“The White House position, which is right, is that there should be no bargaining over this,” Krugman told a panel on ABC’s This Week. “If the Republican majority in the House wants to cut spending, let them propose legislation that cuts spending and pass it, not hold America hostage.”

Bloomberg columnist Al Hunt agreed that the way Republicans were refusing to raise the debt ceiling until the president agreed to drastic spending cuts was a “total and complete fraud.”


Raw Story (http://s.tt/1ynE4)

[Jamaal510]

2. It's not just the media I noticed doing this.

Many supporters of 3rd parties, such as the Libertarians and the Greens, also affectionately use false equivalence. They always want to say that "both" parties are corrupt and only look out for Corporate America, when it's mostly the GOP. The GOP is the ones who are Hell-bent on opposing top income tax hikes while wanting to cut the safety net. They're the ones who want to make it more inconvenient for low-income people to vote.
They think that by attacking both parties, it helps their cause, but all it does is increase the odds of the GOP winning elections by demoralizing liberals.