There is only one real, fundamental issue in American politics, regardless of the election year, the candidates, or any of the cultural ephemera that candidates use to stir up the voters. The Iraq war was (and still is) most certainly an illegal and atrocious mistake, and it may appear to be the Big Issue of the Day. But it will pass. Issues such as abortion, stem cell research, gay marriage, and our chronic trade deficit stir certain people up, but in the long sweep of things they are as ephemeral as a lone raindrop on a hot sidewalk.

The One Big Issue that (more or less explicitly) has dominated our politics for over seventy years, and that distinguishes the two parties is, simply put, how much of the national treasure is to be dedicated to public, as opposed, to private purposes. This is a bigger long term issue than war and peace, or stem cell research, or abortion. It has to do with how much we are willing to be taxed to control the excesses of capitalism and to soften the blows of its cruelties on those who are left behind in the zero sum game that is American life--the aged, the infirm, and the unfortunate.

In our highly competitive economy (and in our educational and other social systems), there are winners and losers. Through no fault of their own?bad luck, genetic and temperamental predisposition, geographic, educational and demographic differences, racial and gender prejudice--some people struggle to make a living, in the midst of affluence and the seductions of a flamboyant consumerist society. Some live in abject poverty, others (we call them the working poor) on the edge of financial disaster. Over the last twenty years or so, the gap between rich and poor has widened substantially. The political issue that emerges from this chronic condition has to do with how much government should do to soften these conditions.

Republicans tend not to believe in the government programs that make up what is commonly called the social safety net. They are uncomfortable with social security, with Medicare, with government housing programs, with welfare for poor people in its various forms, with public health activities. They prefer to leave such matters to the marketplace, or, in cases where a problem is perceived, to such mechanisms as tax credits (which help only those who pay taxes). They tend not to be averse to paying (sometimes massive) government subsidies to corporations to support various policy initiatives, nor are they averse to using government to enforce their ideas of moral rectitude or to the use of government power to suppress labor unions or civil liberties. But helping poor people makes them uncomfortable.

Democrats, by and large, believe that government should take action when clearly-defined social and economic problems emerge. Even today, seventy-odd years later, Democrats subscribe to the broad principles of Franklin D. Roosevelt?s New Deal. In a radio speech delivered in 1944, FDR set out what he called a ?second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all?regardless of station, race, or creed.? These were the rights he enunciated:

• ?The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries, or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

• ?The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

• ?The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

• ?The right of every businessman ? to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination from monopolies here and abroad;

• ?The right of every family to a decent home;

• ?The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

• ?The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment;

• ?The right to a good education.?

At the time of FDR?s address in 1944, Congress had already passed legislation implementing many, if not all, of these ?rights,? and some legislation (anti-trust laws, for example) pre-dated the New Deal by a generation. Many of the federal programs that we take for granted today?social security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage legislation, agricultural subsidies, Medicare and Medicaid and mortgage loan guarantees are just a few?were enacted over the bitter and consistent opposition of what at that time was a Republican minority.

When that minority became a majority, and especially since the Reagan Revolution of the nineteen eighties, and the Republicans? largely successful effort to paint government as the problem, not the solution, this comprehensive system of social and economic legislation has been under attack and has been whittled down to virtually nothing in some areas.

People who think this has been a good thing will vote Republican this November, because Republicans do not believe that government should help people in trouble, only corporations. Democrats believe the opposite. So those who persist in saying that the two parties are the same, or that their votes don?t really matter, are just plain wrong. Democrats may have been intimidated by the vigor and passion of the Republican party?s ideological assaults on the welfare state, but deep down there?s a lot of difference between the two parties, and it matters.