I read with great interest New York Times columnist David Brooks’ recent piece, “The Structural Revolution,” in the May 9 edition of The Times Record.

Brooks wrote about cyclicalists versus structuralists. Thoughtful as usual, he adroitly sidesteps a third alternative and comes disappointingly close to red herring mongering and the politics of obfuscation. Maybe he is just too invested in the status quo to be able to embrace real change, an understandably conservative position.

France’s recent election, promising substantial change, is about much more than Mr. Brooks’ assessment of it being purely anti-austerity. New French President Francois Hollande’s victory was victory for the 99 percent worldwide.

France is now, ironically, our model for a successful exercise in real democracy. However, U.S. Occupiers, though in solidarity, are pragmatically choosing a more American route to economic equity. We are trying to facilitate a cyclical return to the economic structure that served America so well in the past.

Mr. Brooks chooses to ignore the possibility of such a combination. Why?

When I was enjoying an apple pie upbringing, the son of a public school teacher and a stay-at-home mom, with two siblings, personal income rate for the wealthy was 91 percent and corporations paid $1.50 for each $1 raised by individual income tax.

As America’s tax rate fell, disproportionately favoring corporations and the wealthy, so did the personal wealth of most Americans. Families needed two breadwinners. Latchkey kids redefined youth. After learning the hard way, even Ronald Reagan realized taxes needed to be raised to spur growth.

Greece, Britain and France may not have the best economies, as Mr. Brooks points out, but those that do still have the highest of tax rates. He simply ignores that reality. His analysis overall, dazzling with disparate information, is conveniently selective.

Perhaps partisanship doesn’t provide the necessary detachment. The jig, as he says, is indeed up, but it is the new model, built by the right and then Jerry-rigged by the left, that is broken.

Occupiers say let’s return to a distribution of America’s wealth that supports values those on the left and, especially, those on the right only drag out in an election year.

Family and societal strengths were built on a traditional bottom-up economy. Let’s call it “compassionate capitalism” and return to some good old “trickle up” economics.

That doesn’t mean raising taxes on everyone, or even most. It means returning to a tax structure that is equitable, as we once knew it to be.

Restarting there, we might even improve on matters. Just because we dropped the ball for the last 40 years, as the game became increasingly rigged, doesn’t mean we still don’t have a shot. Occupiers want a serious game changer, not an abandonment of the game altogether.

So far, class warfare has been the domain of those on the top who have acquired great skill in deflecting attention elsewhere.

America, repeatedly divided by scare tactics, is steadfastly being conquered. If America has one overwhelming shortcoming, it is our incredibly short attention span regarding our own history, economic and otherwise. Our continued ignorance and preoccupation with personal agendas, remain oligarchy bliss.

Big government and taxation worked well in our past, before the 1 percent ran amok. That is a simple economic truth. The 1 percent redistributed our national wealth for personal gain, tanking the economy and then bailing themselves out on our dime.

Corporate profits have never been higher. Corporate accountability and responsibility has never been lower.

This nation still has enormous wealth. That national wealth is now held hostage by the manipulative few whose insatiable greed denies the majority the opportunity to contribute as they once did.

The greatest waste of money isn’t by government, though lobbyists try their best, but by a 1 percent that lets our economic potential languish.

Occupiers think we can all do better. We only have to look to our past to see a far better future. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. We only want to repair it.

Structural change is indeed coming. Please join us in truly awakening our collective consciousness and conscience, and then, particularly in this election year, informing those that hold or seek the tattered reins of what was once a working democracy.

Occupy Brunswick gathers from 11 a.m. to noon in front of Brunswick’s Maine Street branch of the Bank of America and can be contacted at www.occupybrunswick.wordpress.com

Gary Anderson lives in Bath.

letters@timesrecord.com