Should Americans Vote for Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee? What about Brits? How is it different for them?
Mon 3:57 pm +00:00, 5 Oct 2026
Source: https://www.fff.org/2026/10/02/should-americans-vote-for-tweedle-dum-or-tweedle-dee/
Pity Latin American voters. On election day, they are faced with two choices — right-wing candidates or left-wing candidates. The right-wing candidates come with “free-market” policies combined with a powerful standing army with omnipotent powers, one that ensures the destruction of civil liberties. The left-wing candidates come with massive welfare-state socialist policies that plunge the country into severe economic and monetary crises. Regardless of which side wins, the citizenry is certain to suffer the erosion or destruction of their liberty and economic well-being. What a horrible position to be in on election day.
But lest Americans look down their noses at the political situation in Latin America, it’s worth noting that it’s really not any different here in the United States. American voters on election day are faced with the choice of voting for Republicans or Democrats, but regardless of who wins, the result is always the same — more destruction of the freedom and well-being of the American people.
Consider the “affordability crisis” in which a vast number of Americans are having a terrible time making ends meet, especially given the soaring costs of gasoline, groceries, healthcare, housing, interest rates, and other items.
Democrats exclaim, “Elect us! We know how to make things cheaper!” But that’s just laughable. As history has shown us, Democrats are among the biggest government spenders in the world, given their ardent commitment to both the welfare state and the warfare state. Out-of-control federal spending, which Democrats love, leads to massive taxation, debt, and inflationary debasement of people’s money at the hands of the central bank. Democrats often advocate price controls and rent controls to solve the problem of higher prices resulting from all this, which produce shortages and induce even more governmental destruction of economic liberty.
But as we have seen, it’s really no different with Republicans. How often were Americans told that if Republicans controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress, they would be able to rein in federal spending and even balance the budget. Well, Republicans now control both houses of Congress and the presidency. They could balance the budget today. Have they done so since they took control after the 2024 elections? Nope. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office projected a $1.9 trillion federal deficit for fiscal year 2026. Same old, same old.
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American right-wingers and left-wingers like to emphasize their differences, but those differences aren’t fundamental in nature. Their fight is over control of the welfare-warfare state. Consider some of their similarities:
1. They both are committed to the welfare state, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public (i.e., government) schooling, farm subsidies, education grants, aid to the arts, and other socialist programs.
2. They both are committed to the national-security state, including the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA, and a massive, permanent military-intelligence establishment within the United States.
3. They both are committed to foreign wars, interventionism, invasions, occupations, wars of aggression, undeclared wars, sanctions, embargoes, and an empire of foreign military bases.
4. They both are committed to “securing the border” and to the massive deadly and destructive immigration police state that comes with trying to achieve that end.
5. They both are committed to the decades-old drug war, along with the massive liberty-destroying police state that has come with it.
6. They both are committed to the “war on terrorism,” along with the massive destruction of civil liberties and privacy that accompanies it.
7. They both are committed to America’s paper-money system and to the Federal Reserve that mismanages it.
8. They both are committed to income taxation, the IRS, tariffs, protectionism, and trade restrictions.
9. They both support extensive federal management and intervention in the economy.
10. They both have repeatedly voted to raise or suspend the debt ceiling whenever it has been reached.
Thus, on election day, when American voters are faced with choosing between Republicans and Democrats, they confront a dilemma similar to the one faced by Latin American voters. American voters, like those in Latin America, are relegated to choosing between right-wing Tweedle Dums and left-wing Tweedle Dees. Regardless of which side wins, the American people lose.
