Friend of the blog, Tom Sgouros expresses the following concern about protestors and supporters of Occupy Providence:I’ve enjoyed walking through Burnside Park on my way to and from work lately, and I find the activity and energy invigorating. One point that worries me, though, is represented in some conversations I’ve joined or overheard as I passed through, and it has to do with our political parties and the differences between them… Not being represented by either party isn’t the same thing as saying there is no difference between them. It takes a fool to deny the differences between our two parties.Notably Sgouros doesn’t offer the details of those conversations or list those differences he finds so significant, so we’re left to wonder what exactly he means. But it appears to be a common strawman argument, usually intended to marginalize those critics as unreasonable, to be set up and knocked down as if it actually represents the views of these “foolish” unnamed Occupiers.
The actual position is much harder to dismiss. With neither party addressing the great moral issues of our time, who cares if one supports minor policy changes of some sort or another while the other doesn’t? That’s an example of the illusion of choice, not proof of it. Here’s Gore Vidal some forty years ago:
There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party…and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt—until recently… and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.
Which part of that is foolish, Tom? I’d say that’s even truer now, than when Vidal wrote it. In fairness Sgouros goes on to conclude:…it also takes a fool to claim that what the bulk of the current Democratic party offers is economic populism or anything other than centrist economic pap. Which is a problem because centrist economic pap — bromides about growth, fealty to the “job creators” who walk among us, and lack of respect for the great mass of workers who made our country great — has not served us well.Yeah, sure, I normally vote Democratic, but count me with Vidal among the “foolish” on this one.