Corporate media coverage of the presidential campaign has bent over backwards to reinforce the assertion of both parties--epitomized by the anti-Nader Democratic Party push--that there are significant differences between the two parties. There are, indeed, differences; but they are dwarfed by the similarities.

For progressive voters, reproductive rights and diversity are two of the only issues on which Al Gore and the entire Democratic Party ticket in Seattle--Maria Cantwell, Gary Locke, Jim McDermott, and on down the food chain--are better than the Republicans. The Democrats also have a fairer tax plan, and Gore would make somewhat better Cabinet and mid-level administrative appointments. There are a handful of other issues.

Meanwhile, here is a non-exhaustive list of over 120 issues on which some, most, or all Democrats and Republicans both sell us out. On many of them, every third party presidential candidate--Ralph Nader, Harry Browne, David McReynolds, even, goddess forbid, Patrick Buchanan and John Hagelin-- offers clear alternatives. Ready?

Access to abortion, particularly for poor women, rural women, and minors; suppression of RU-486; lack of funding for women's health care issues; corporate-friendly Supreme Court nominees; conservative federal judges; suspended habeas corpus; mandatory sentencing; prison-industrial complex and prison labor; War on Drugs; death penalty; militarization of police; aid to Colombia, Indonesia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Nigeria, Egypt, and Israel; not paying United Nations dues; undermining international law and independent international bodies; expansion of NATO; government-funded arms sales; lack of respect for human rights; support for Third World despots; Iraq sanctions; Cuba sanctions; immigration and border militarization; "humanitarian" military interventions [sic]; military spending; National Missile Defense (Star Wars), and the militarization of space; plutonium in space; nuclear proliferation; nuclear weapon de-alerting; Hanford clean-up; nuclear energy and nuclear waste; 1872 mining law; factory fishing; "salvage" logging and clearcuts; land exchanges; pollution credits and cutting deals with polluters; weakening of clean air and clean water standards; selling Alaskan oil overseas; auctioning petroleum reserves; drilling in Alaska; global warming and ozone depletion; weak fuel emission standards; biodiversity; bio-engineered foods, forestry products, and farm animals; food irradiation; deregulation of food safety standards and inspections; biopiracy (the patenting of life forms); salmon recovery; breaching the Snake River dams; animal rights; free trade, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, the MAI, and fast-track trade authority; preferred trading status with China; imposition of structural adjustment programs; media mega-mergers; the auctioning of publicly owned airwaves to the highest bidder; utility deregulation; airline deregulation; commercialization of culture; corporate control of higher education and research; lack of affordability of higher education; privatization of schools; lack of availability of child care and day care; Internet privacy and the commercialization of the Internet; tort reform; rolling back civil rights and avoiding an Equal Rights Amendment; separation of church and state; erosion of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 8th Amendments; FBI and CIA COINTELPRO-type programs; political prisoners; welfare "reform" and dismantling the social welfare state; gender-based wage inequalities; gap between rich and poor; homelessness; federal housing programs; Social Security privatization; campaign finance reform; proportional representation; Third Party ballot and debate access; corporate welfare; corporate crime; corporate tax reform; subsidies for exporting corporations; labor organizing and Taft-Hartley repeal; sweatshops, union-busting, and outsourcing; rolling back affirmative action; pushing drugs (e.g., Ritalin) on children; maintaining an expensive, privatized health care system; and allowing cancer-causing tobacco additives.

Get the idea?