Why should this be so?

We are all born pretty much pure, with love in our hearts and kind thoughts in our heads.   But as we grow and learn (assuming you grow up and assuming you learn - both BIG assumptions) you begin to see that life is NOT fair and you have to confront some pretty inescapable observations:

Some people are simply born STUPID and no amount of 'help' is going to change that.  

Some people are just born 'unlucky' and no matter how much help you try to give them, unlucky and bad things continue to happen to them.  

Some people work harder and get more than others are willing to do.  

This leads to the liberal (Democratic) and the conservative (Republican) political parties and completely different ideals.   A kind way to describe the political ideals would be to say:

Democrats believe that people are basically good, decent and honest and will get along just fine with a little help from their government.  

Republicans believe that people are basically good, decent and honest and will get along just fine if their government will just leave them alone.  

Hopefully you can see that both ideals are equally correct, and equally flawed.   Neither is workable in their pure form.   Democrats seem to feel that each law, regulation, tax and government program will get us one step closer to a perfect society where everyone is taken care of.   The down side is that with each law our freedoms are restricted and with each program a segment of society becomes more and more dependent on their government.  

Conversely, the Republicans would greatly increase personal freedoms (except in some totally bizarre cases such as abortion) but the weaker elements of society would suffer greatly and possibly have NO representation in their government.  

So what's a PIG to think?

That we're lucky to HAVE both parties for fear of what the other would do if it ran completely unchecked.   The size of the government and the opposing views of the parties tends to make government slow to react and change and this is GOOD.   Were one party (pick one) to have total control, things might change so rapidly that the people (that's us) wouldn't be able to adapt to it quickly enough and at the hands of either party ....   our country would go down hill in a big hurry.  

Democrats have gotten a bad rap about their 'tax and spend' mentality.   They DO take from those that HAVE and use the money to provide for those that don't have.   For people in tax brackets twice that of yours, the streets are not twice as nice.   The water doesn't come out of the tap twice as hot, nor does 911 get there twice as fast (usually).   No, they just pay TWICE what you do and this isn't fair.   Period.   Having said that, SOMEONE has to take care of those that can't care for themselves and the Republicans have never shown an interest in those people.  

Republicans have always had the bad rap about being 'anti-people' and 'pro-business.' This is true, but not for the reasons you might think.   The business of America is Business.   Businesses create the paychecks and paychecks pay the bills and sustain the economy.   See Quick Economics.

When business is good, jobs expand, people get hired and raises abound.   Yet when business is BAD, very few employees go to the boss and say "I know times are tough.   I know you put a second mortgage on your house to shore us up.   I'd like to give you back 20% of my paycheck because I figure that I participated in the good times and I owe you back during bad times." At least, that has never happened in current history.   So business owners get into a mode of not looking out for the employees (tit for tat) because employees say things like "yeah, but what have you done for me TODAY?" and business owners feel that the Democrats want to take what profits they DO make and funnel it back to programs that they (the business owner) won't see.   So they fund the Republicans who promise to keep out of their lives.  

If you ever got hired for a job, chances are a Republican gave it to you because he bet everything he owned that he could start a business that needed employees.  

If you ever lost a job and needed welfare or unemployment, chances are it was a Democrat that thought up the program and passed it into law.  

We need them both .  

See also Rules for having a job

Now, if you ever have occasion to talk to your elected representative (and you should - it can really open your eyes) and you delve past their rhetoric, you'll find the worst part of their job: They can do almost anything they want ...   except that which they yearn to be able to do ...   which is tell their constituents the truth.

This is because the heart of the very flawed political system is the very flawed voters (that's us).   What they yearn to tell their voters is that Life is hard.   That not every answer to a problem is government.   That what you want will result in higher taxes.   That no one gets what they want unless they're willing to PAY for it and WAIT for it.  

But we won't hear that.   Our idea runs more along the lines of telling them "If you won't give was what we want, at no charge, and right this minute, we'll kick you out an elect someone who WILL."