To those malcontents who say they can't see any daylight between the parties, I say --

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. Because our leaders, of BOTH parties,

keep steadfastly to policies that favour the rich (ie, themselves). In large part because you have to be rich or have a lot of rich patrons to run for office, which puts pressure on to make those patrons happy.

Republicans tend to do it with blunter, more easily understood policies, like switching from income taxes to sales taxes. Democrats at least usually try to obfuscate what they're doing in more complex policies that give some benefits to the poor, but ensure that even more money will flow to the rich. With TTP and TTIP, they tried simply to hide it from view entirely, until it's fait accompli. But thankfully, as I said, there are some smaller number of good Dems who break with the party - my Senator, Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders (ok, not a Dem, but he caucuses with) and so on. Probably not enough to swing things outright, but maybe, just maybe, enough to get enough citizen outrage raised, ok, strike that, they just announced a deal was reach on fast-tracking it, and think they've got enough votes to do so. I hope they're wrong.