"The only difference between a Republican and a Democrat today is their publicly articulated positions on a number of wedge issues designed to drum up voter enthusiasm. It is inevitable that all parties will evolve towards a common standard of behavior. At the completion of this process, the governing stratum becomes a class of professional managers who differ from one another no more than do the class of CEOs. Europe has arrived at this point in advance of the USA."

Very well put. The liberal/conservative dichotomy is a very real one, but in American politics it is a phony issue designed to distract, not guide, the voter: basically all politicians are either lawyers or businessmen, or both. They're the guys that ran for student government and joined Junior Achievement in high school. Remember? the ones that always cribbed the numbers from your lab notebook.