A year 2000 Tocqueville would similarly conclude that we too are at a political ebb, with our major parties preoccupied with minor matters. The presidential race is low enough territory to catch sight of the small parties lurking in our political landscape. If the platforms of the leading candidates in the Democratic and Republican primaries are an indication, both parties are hovering at the low level of the political status quo. Even given the narrowness of party primaries, the campaign of Al Gore shows the hallmark of small parties, according to Tocqueville. In his fiscal overtures to labor unions and teacher unions we see a bald appeal to the special interests that the Democratic party has traditionally courted.
Private benefits are a public purpose.
But his aspirations for political reform are in truth merely extensions of the kinds of regulatory and entitlement programs with which Al Gore has identified himself. It is Gore's logic no less than Bradley's that since government programs mean prosperity, more spending and more programs mean even more prosperity. The disputes between Bradley and Gore about the policy minutiae of expanding government health care and maintaining current levels of Social Security payments reveal the two candidates' conformity to the big government status quo. Their small-party squabbles about how to distribute government's favors steer clear of any discussion of why elected officials ought not be the broker for one's check from the U.S. Treasury. Looking to the other party, Republican George W. Bush apparently views the race for president as one for the national governorship.