Fundamental Differences Between Parties

*Note: This is a general statement of personal opinion, not a guarantee of how every member of the political parties are.

In my experience, Republicans care really strongly about a few things:
1) They want to keep the money they've made (and keep it away from the less fortunate),
2) They want to hang on to their guns (and would prefer to carry them wherever they go), and
3) They don't want women to have any reproductive choice, even in the event of rape, incest or possible health risks to the mother.

Democrats care strongly about universal access to health care, trying to raise up the less fortunate and poverty-stricken, giving our children a better education than they received through No Child Left Behind, making sure our veterans are treated with respect and proper medical care, equal pay for both sexes, a woman's right to choose, taking care of the environment, updating energy policy, getting the economy back under control, decreasing unemployment rates, etc.

Recently, Republicans also care about whatever their pundits work them into a lather about. If Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh weren't conservative darlings, their ranting might be grounds to commit them for a 5150 psych hold. Most of what they (and the talking heads like them) are saying lately sound like the paranoid delusions of a crazy person. Whenever I see clips from their shows, I imagine that the person speaking is a 7-year-old who is prone to exaggeration and it makes it slightly less scary. All their talk of socialized medicine, gulags, death panels, Obama and the Democrats trying to prevent you from receiving necessary medical care and deciding when your friends and family are going to die, etc. is so far outside of reality to me that it boggles my mind that there are people in this country who actually believe it.

I just hope that at some point soon the fog of "group think" lifts and Republican politicians, citizens, and pundits become acquainted once again with reality.