Ummm...well, I think the Democrats and Republicans (at the party management level, meaning those people who are seated in government and who run the party machines) are BOTH beholden to the same big financial powers. That's the wealthy elite. The wealthy elite funds the parties, provides most of the money for campaigning at election time, and lobbies the parties when they are in office.

Accordingly, they serve the interests of that wealthy elite.

This recent Possible Debit Default crisis has been a manufactured crisis, in my opinion, staged in the usual fashion with massive media coverage...its purpose to panic the general public into meekly supporting legislation that is not in their real interest.

It's the "Shock Doctrine", as written about by Naomi Klein. You can shock people with an apparent military threat, such as 911. And they'll allow you to invoke emergency laws that take away their civil liberties and they'll allow you to launch wars of choice on foreign lands. Very profitable for the war industry and the oil industry.

You can shock them with a supposed national medical crisis (this is done quite frequently...every 2 or 3 years) and they'll pay for billions of dollars in new vaccines and drugs. Very profitable for Big Pharma.

You can shock them with a supposed debt default crisis, and they'll meekly submit to another assault on social services and another chipping away at all the gains that were made in social legislation since FDR.

The Democratic Party once worked in concert with labour unions and workers to provide jobs and services for the common public. That was a long time ago. The Democratic party has abandoned the labour unions. It has abandoned the general public. It's working for the wealthy elite...but pretending not to. The Republican Party works for the wealthy elite and is openly proud of doing so! The Democrats pretend to be an alternative to the Republicans, but don't turn out to be that at all once they are in office.

You can count on further episodes of the Shock Doctrine to be applied whenever these 2 corrupt and irresponsible parties are instructed by their financial backers that it's time to make their next key move...and it will not be a move that benefits the average American.

In order to increase the Shock effect and divide the public uselessly against one another, the usual emotional Splinter issues will be trotted out once again, their purpose to distract and divide the public into extreme opposition to each other over minor issues while enormously more significant social issues slip right by them:

Gay rights and gay marriage vs the Religious Right.

Stem cell research vs the Religious Right.

Anti-abortion vs pro-choice.

Accusations of racism flung in various directions vs Fear of Blacks on the part of small town White America.

Urban values vs small town and country values.

Anti-Islamic reaction vs defending Islamic people's rights.

Etc.

And what is all that? It's a bunch of highly visible emotional hoopla for people to be at each other's throats over (and to feel RIGHTEOUSLY INDIGNANT ABOUT!!! Which always helps...)

...while far more vital matters such as the invention of vast amounts of fictional money by the banks and the Fed in what is really a giant pyramid scheme go unnoticed. And the world's most bloated and aggressive military machine continues to roll on like a juggernaut and assault other nations. And your jobs get sent offshore or to Mexico. And your industries (unless they are war industries) wither away. And your private income goes down. And your private expenses go up. And your social services are privatized to the rich and greedy and cost you more after that. And your civil liberties are taken away piece by piece.