Do American liberals ever pay attention to the corruption in the Democratic Party at all? If so, why do they insist that the Republican Party is worse?
Quora Question:
Answered by: Randy Weir: Author, journalist, minister
Lifelong conservative and former Republican here. Let’s run through this.
Reagan should have been impeached over Iran-Contra, but Oliver North perjured himself to protect him, and became a Republican hero for doing so.
Bill Clinton lied about an affair and was impeached. One factor in Gore’s loss in 2000 was that voters associated him with Clinton, and were tired of the scandal—which Gore was no part of.
George W Bush ignored intelligence briefings, and allowed the worst terrorist attack ever to occur on American soil. His approval rating passed 90%. He then responded by attacking the wrong country. Twice. He won re-election.
A major factor in John Kerry’s loss to Bush in 2004 was the (false) allegation that he had embellished his war record. Kerry is the only Democratic nominee for President since Dukakis not to win the popular vote. His running mate, John Edwards was a Democratic frontrunner for 2008 until his career was ended because he had an affair.
Obama wore a tan suit once and asked for mustard on his hamburger. It was scandalous. When he left office, almost 3/4 of Republicans still questioned his citizenship.
Hillary’s loss in 2016 was due in part over anger that she was investigated but not charged for using a private email server when it was legal for her to do so. She also lost votes among Democrats who felt she improperly influenced the 2016 primary to beat Bernie Sanders.
Donald Trump and his campaign met with a Russian operative. Mueller testified Trump encouraged Russian interference in the 2016 election and committed obstruction of justice to cover his actions. He bragged that he routinely sexually assaulted women, that he took steps to try to walk in on naked underage girls, and said he was sexually attracted to his thirteen-year-old daughter. He repeatedly violated the emoluments clause and the Hatch Act and used Federal dollars to light one of his properties during a government shutdown. He repeatedly sided with Russia against our own intelligence agencies and held secret meetings with Putin. At least two countries issued arrest warrants for Trump after he ordered the assassination of an Iranian general in violation of international law. He was impeached for withholding Congressionally authorized aid to Ukraine to try to coerce the Ukrainian President into helping him smear Joe Biden. He met privately with Taliban leaders outside the presence of the legitimate Afghan government, and promised to free 5,000 Taliban terrorists, pledged that the US would abandon the country to the Taliban about 100 days after he left office, then illegally withdrew troops from Afghanistan five days before leaving office in violation of the National Defense Authorization Act. He used false claims of election fraud to incite an insurrection, and used the promise of frivolous lawsuits to con his supporters out of donations. He set records for the most criminal indictments, guilty pleas, and criminal convictions by members of an administration, for the longest government shutdown, for the largest single day point drop in the history of the Dow, for the most new unemployment claims in history, for the largest annual budget deficit, for the most added to the national debt in a single Presidential term, and became the first President to be impeached twice, and the first to have Senators from his own party vote for his conviction. In his re-election bid, he got the most votes of any incumbent in history, and is the current front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
The two parties are definitely not the same.