GOP vs. DNC

Today I was asked by the AARP to send a note to both parties about health care insurance plans. Yes, I'm now old enough to be on the AARP's list.

I decided to go to both the GOP and DNC websites to see how easy it would be to contact the parties there in order to send each a personal note about my thoughts about health insurance instead of some mass campaign that's easier for them to ignore.

I went to the GOP website first, looking for a "contact" link. But that's not what I'm writing about. And here is why.

On the GOP site homepage, all I found were links to articles written about Obama and various smear campaigns about Obama and anyone he is connected with. I couldn't find a single bit of information on the Republican home page about their candidate for president.

Who is running for President on the Republican ticket? Honestly, if you didn't know and went there to find out, you still wouldn't know. You would know all about Obama though.

Like the years when Bush smeared John McCain, the Republicans are still very good at deflecting any attention to their lackluster below par candidate by their usual smear tactics against the opponent.

Remember how America used to abhor propaganda? Well the Cold War is over and apparently the Republicans have figured that propaganda wins them votes. I was very disappointed.

Even though information on McCain wasn't what I initially went to the website for, I was interested in what his thoughts were on several issues and wanted to check for myself instead of relying on word of mouth. But I couldn't find any information about John McCain on the GOP home page.

I did find a link to write to the GOP at the bottom of the page and wrote to them voicing my concerns. I got an impersonal canned reply instantly.

Then I went to the DNC website thinking that maybe they would have their whole website devoted to McCain the way the GOP has theirs devoted to Barack Obama. I was wrong. The DNC website is all about guess what? Barack Obama. Hmm. I was able to find out what he believes in and stands for on the issues that concern me.

I wrote to the DNC outlining my health care concerns. I haven't gotten a reply yet. I fully expect it, like the one from the GOP will be a canned message but I understand that both parties are busy.

After visiting both websites I spent some time thinking about the differences between the two. It really surprised me that the whole GOP (Republican) presidential campaign is based on smearing the opponent rather than talking about their candidate. I am basically an independent voter. The first year I was old enough to vote for president was 1980. I voted for John Anderson. Now if that made you laugh then you are at least as old as me and remember he was the independent running that year.

I voted Republican a couple of times over the years when I thought they had the best candidate for governor, president or whatever. I am not narrow minded. But today's Republican party is certainly not the one I grew up with. I find myself feeling that no matter who ran on their ticket today, I would have to vote for the opposition even if they were able to resurrect Abraham Lincoln. But of course if Lincoln were alive today, he wouldn't be a Republican, would he? If he had run against GW Bush, I'm quite sure Bush would have won.

My impressions from looking at both of the major party websites is that the Republicans are like the overgrown 6th graders on the playground who by sheer size and meanness do whatever they want to do and get away with it because everybody else is afraid of them. On the other hand, the Democrats appear reasonable and thoughtful about the issues and though they don't meet all of my concerns, they will at least talk about them and perhaps more importantly, they won't beat me up if I don't agree with them.