Without Reagen we might be in a better place. He really began the modern revolving door between banks and politics and dismantled financial regulation to allow banking to become hugely profitable. He was also instrumental in putting the final nails in the coffin of labor and destroying the middle class. What's scary is that a lot of the guys who were part of that are now advising Obama.
Your answer is most likely described in this article. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574443600711779692.html
Ahhh, the article highlights the stupidity of people when they attempt to arrest the natural flow of things. I could dribble on this subject at length, but it is every ones individual journey, including mine. And yes your vote does make a difference. It more or less decides who you see on TV, and who fiddles with the micro decisions that effect your taxes, security (level on inconvenience), health etc. But it does not make one iota of difference to the macro events that rule your life, whether they be man made or not.
You mean blind patriotism is easier and requires less effort than individualism. Well you are certainly not alone in your thinking (or lack of)
Your vote only makes a difference if the political party you are voting for understands how supply and demand works in a free market system. In our case presently, voting either way is meaningless. Palin once talked about eliminating the artificial creation of credit and the virtues of saving, but was ridiculed by the media. Who knows, probably there is hope. I am not crazy about her but she is the only one who I think has a chance to make a difference, Paul is not outspoken enough or hot enough..lol
Here is my post from 2 or 3 posts ago. You may have missed it "And yes your vote does make a difference. It more or less decides who you see on TV, and who fiddles with the micro decisions that effect your taxes, security (level on inconvenience), health etc. But it does not make one iota of difference to the macro events that rule your life, whether they be man made or not."
The OP's question, if voting for either party would make or have made our economic situation different. The answer, presently, is no. Why you go into something not related to the discussion, I don't understand, but your point of view regarding your comments, is also valid.
Silly of me to ramp this thread up on ET. In answer to the OP's question (don't worry, I will try to keep this simple.) At a micro level which is the level of gov. intrusion and personal interference, the answer is anyone's guess. Maybe there would be a difference, maybe there would not. At a macro level. the gov. of the day is not calling the shots and so there would be not discernible change imho.