Politics in its most common form: complaint. No one wanted to do it but everyone was happy to complain about it. - Kim Stanley Robinson

The only part of an argument that really matters is what we think of the people arguing. X claims a, Y claims b. They make arguments to support their claims, with any number of points. But when their listeners remember the discussion, what matters is simply that X believes a and Y believes b. People then form their judgment on what they think of X and Y.

A change in the form of government, why should that make a difference in the way he lived?

“You damned liberals.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means you’re too soft-hearted to ever actually do anything.”