The fundamental fallacy … committed by almost everyone is this: “A and B hate each other, therefore one is good and the other is bad.” [Bertrand Russell]
When people hear a story, they ask: Is it really true? When people hear two stories, they ask: Which one is true? [Author unknown]
The smart way to keep people obedient and passive is to strictly limit the spectrum of debate, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. [Noam Chomsky]
In the USA, political partisanship can be bitter nowadays. Pew Research reported that nearly one in two Americans have stopped talking politics with someone because of something they said. Among liberal Democrats, the figure is six in 10.
The most obvious explanation for this is polarization on certain issues—abortion rights, gun control, gay marriage or affirmative action, for example. The alignment of the two parties is clear, and I don’t talk to many individuals who mix and match issues.
But studies show that many Democrats and Republicans decide on issues based on party, affiliation rather than choosing their party based on issues. Pollsters find that they get different answers to their questions when they say where Obama or Trump stands on a certain question than when they just state the question.
What all this hides is the fundamental agreement of top Democratic and Republican leaders on fundamental questions of peace and war, and of economic and political power.
Democratic and Republican administrations of the past 20 years have agreed to a state of war waged by invasions, bombings, assassinations and economic blockade with no expectation or even definition of victory.
In the name of war, they have normalized universal warrantless surveillance, detention without trial and torture, and have prosecuted whistleblowers who reveal the government’s crimes.
Democratic and Republican administrations of the past 30 years have given free rein to financial speculators who have crashed the economy and enriched themselves. Neither party when in power has prosecuted financial fraud. Neither has enforced the anti-trust laws. Neither has stood up for the right of workers to organize.
I’m not saying there is absolutely no difference between the two parties’ leaderships. I’m saying that neither party’s leadership has strayed from what is acceptable to Wall Street, Silicon Valley or the military-industrial complex.
Nor am I criticizing you if you think abortion rights or gun ownership is more important to you than any of the issues I’ve mentioned. I just say the public deserves a chance to vote for advocates of peace and economic justice
A lot has been written by Jonathan Haidt and others about fundamental value differences between progressives and conservatives. But what set of progressive or conservative values justifies financial fraud? Or waging war against countries that do not threaten us? Or an economic system in which income is continually redistributed upward into the pockets of the superrich?