Perhaps the point is subtle, because you seem to have missed it entirely. Republican policy isn't wrong because it isn't Democrat policy; it's wrong because they're the same policy with two slightly different marketing plans. If we judge this policy by its results, it's clearly neither progressive nor conservative. Rather, it's highly effective in keeping the plebes hard at work while ensuring that all resources of society are controlled by the wealthy and powerful and amoral. If you still care to defend one party against the other, you're still being manipulated.