Couldn’t get through all that ...but will assume I agree.. After purging itself of their impure Moderates, the Republican party has found itself in a serious minority. To counter that, they’ve a well-funded on-going Voter Apathy campaign … that meshes well with their tried & true Voter Intimidation & Suppression campaigns.

Anyone claiming there’s no difference has either fallen for Nader’s nonsense of decades ago, or bought the current Republican line..

Here’s how it works: discourage voters; ‘both parties are the same,’ 'politicians are all evil,’ ‘your vote doesn't count,’ ‘the system’s rigged’... Then - they spark ‘their voters’ with the fear of: gays, the loss of their gods, or their guns. That usually does it.

Their folks march to the polls, vote for Republicans, Republicans further Gerrymander districts, pack the courts, cut industrial regulations, break treaties, give tax breaks to the wealthy, ignore legislative rules, deny healthcare, defund public education, fund unlimited military expenditures…. And that’s only the obvious...

With each Republican win it becomes more difficult for Democrats to become elected without using similar tactics … so both parties are described as ‘the same’ … by the same powers that had proclaimed that to begin with ...and our Democracy decays.. China grins, Russia wets their pants with glee.. and the world becomes less safe for all democracies

The democrats are very keen on making voting easy and accessible because they know that high turn out bodes well for them. on the other hand, it is the opposite during primaries. The establishment realizes that high turnout is positive for populist candidates and not so good for their preferred choices. So they do things like close polling places that are in low income neighborhoods and near college campuses. Most states keep their primaries closed because they don't want independents voting for anti-establishment candidates. They want to keep the voting pool as loyal as possible. And then there is the issue of super-delegates. That's just about the most disrespectful thing a party can do to it's voters. It's like saying- We see your votes but we reserve the right to disregard your preferences and override your will if you choose wrong.

I don't think you are correct when you say the democrats want there to be a living wage. Some of them do, but the party generally doesn't. If they did, they would have raised the minimum wage to a living wage in 2009 when they had full control. Recently, Sanders has gotten many of them to support $15 minimum wage but I don't think most of them are dedicated to it. I think it's just lip services. I haven't seen the democrats actually fight for this at all.

I think the parties have much more in common than it appears. Both are imperialist are supporting of constantly increasing the enormous military budget and feeding the military industrial complex. Both take a tough on crime approach and are okay with mass incarceration. Both favor corporate socialism but always ask, how will we pay for it, when confronted with any idea that might actually help regular people. Both are in favor of for profit healthcare. Both take the side of fossil fuel companies over environmentalists. And both are in favor of continuing the disastrous drug war rather than taking a rational treatment approach to addiction.

The way I see it is that,they are two wings of the same party. Republicans are the far right wing and democrats are the center right wing. There are some differences but they mainly agree on most things. It may look as though the democrats disagree and oppose the republicans but I'm learning more and more that the democrats put up a front of liberalism but then, behind the scenes, cave to the republicans and let them have their way. they don't fight for us. They are bought by the same corporate elites and their function is to pretend to be on our side and then betray us to the right wingers at nearly every turn and then act like they did the best they could. Their function is to capture the enthusiasm and energy of the left and then squander it purposefully.

The differences are not so stark as you present them. For example: Democrats have fought and won to retain the employer-based health insurance system, leaving 10’s of millions uninsured and underinsured. Remember Hillary declaring in a 2016 debate that single payer “will never happen.” I can name so many more examples of Democrats opposing policies that they seem to support or express support for but in fact side with the corporatists at every turn. So two more examples:

1. Democrats in the Senate have overwhelmingly voted to confirm Trump’s judges—more than 30 yea votes for his latest nominee in the Florida district court

2. House Democrats, who are now in the majority, wrote a bill to hand the Trump administration $4.5 billion to expand immigrant detention centers, transportation, and child extraction with virtually no oversight of how immigrants are treated or how the money is spent. It was an abominable bill that Trump signed into law. When I protested at my Democratic Congresswoman’s office to demand she speak out against immigrant abuse, she called the police to have me taken away. Maybe worse, Democrats in my district—constituents like me—attacked me for daring to hold my elected representative accountable for her vote.

I could go on but my words will fall on deaf ears.