I think both writers are not mentioning that the goal of both parties is the same. Control of congress, the executive administration and as many state and local governments as possible.
Party leaders have slightly different goals, they have private agendas that can really only be achieved by advancing the goal of controlling congress and the executive administration or other political positions. That is not to say that none of those goals are benevolent. I believe that many of the party leaders, especially at lower levels have humanitarian or other benevolent goals.
Lacking a single driving issue that could unite a constituency of majority proportions a coalition is necessary in order to win. The core of each coalition Republican and Democrat is the party faithful and natural allies. For the party faithful and natural allies, their choice is easy their party wins they win the issues don’t really matter, they are just part of the machine.
The swing voters are issue voters or maybe as you have stated, the independent thinker, someone who will vote their conscience or contribute based on a cost benefit analysis.
When is it evil to make contributions and vote based on self-interest over society’s interests? There is a natural hierarchy, self, family, neighborhood, town, state, region, nation, world. JFK famously set the nation above the individual with “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” a clear appeal to Nationalism from a Democrat who today I would think might be considered a Conservative. In the face of this it is hard to support the contention that the nation has move to the right.
Getting back on subject. Policies have winners and losers. Most often the losers will oppose the policy and the winners will support the policy. Right (good) and wrong (bad) often have very little affect on who supports a given policy.
The development of win, win policies have very little support because they will be adopted by both sides and will not help any particular party. Policies need to do one of two things to get the support of a party. First and easiest is energize the base, get out the vote. Second is add more members to the coalition than it adds to the opposition. Thus policies are naturally divisive.
How do we get the right (good) policies adopted? Education and an informed and ethical electorate. We have to convince more people to sacrifice for the greater good. Kennedy was right except it should not be “what you can do for your country” but what can you do for the people and the planet. Jimmy Carter tried to get us to turn down our thermostats and wear a sweater inside in the winter. The media turned this into a joke. Sad.
I said we need to convince more people to sacrifice, well that needs to start at the top. The elite and the rich must not just give up luxury and privilege they must suffer at least as much as the middle class. The leaders must lead by example.
After thinking through all this it is hard to avoid becoming cynical. There is one last cynical hope. The oligarchic plutocratic elites are smart enough and at least care as much about the future as they do about current luxury and privilege that they will find some way to manipulate policies and the public in a way to avoid existential crisis and massive suffering.
Sadly the signs are not all that good.
TEK
