Jonathan Chait is a mixed bag, IMO, but he’s right here about how badly the Beltway press covers what Democrats and Republicans actually do on economic policy vs. what they say:
Conservatives are not just working the refs when they claim to feel marginalized. Holding right-wing beliefs while living in a place like New York, Washington, or Los Angeles has become a genuinely alienating experience.
[It ain’t no picnic holding left-wing beliefs in North Cockroach Acres, Florida either. — ed.]
But the changes in the composition of the two parties’ voting bases [i.e., the influx of non-college whites into the Republican Party] have not altered the long-standing class orientation of their policy agendas. Democrats still vote to redistribute income downward, while Republicans vote to redistribute it upwards. The political media’s fixation with the marginal change in the composition of the two parties’ bases has made it lose touch with the actual purpose to which they use their power.
The class orientation of their programs — the important things they actually do with power — has not changed. Democrats are pushing through a bill whose intent and effect would be to bring about a historically large downward transfer of resources. The upper-middle-class voters the party has been attracting in greater numbers would face combined tax rates at or around 60 percent, in the highest tax states. The spending these taxes would finance would go to people of modest means.
As Chait (correctly) points out, the politicians who will thwart those programs given the chance are Republicans who “posture as tribunes of the working people,” e.g., folks like Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton. Republicans may get an assist in killing the reconciliation bill’s most ambitious programs from a handful of conservative Democrats, which sucks.
But it’s important to note that Manchin, Sinema and the small handful who may be hiding behind their skirts aren’t the mainstream of the Democratic Party. They are fringe outliers.
Similarly, when the so-called champion of downscale Red America was president for four years, his only economic achievements were to sign a massive tax cut that oligarchs promptly used to buy back stocks and appoint deregulation-friendly judges. As always, look at what they do, not what they say. That one weird trick would improve Beltway coverage immeasurably.
Open thread!
Baud
Sedition will do that for you.
Omnes Omnibus
Also worth noting, that Manchin, et al., are still well to the left of the GOP.
dmsilev
@Baud: We set up preserved habitats for them where they can live out their lives in a protective bubble. Staten Island, Huntington Beach, etc.
Barbara
Journalists live in blue metropolitan areas and apparently cannot even begin to conceive what it is like to live in a red county, even in a blue state.
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue team
Another great post Betty
I’m not gonna say you’re a living national treasure, but at least a regional one, eh?
Thank you for this
waspuppet
Funny how holding fact-free, aggressively stupid beliefs in an area where people went to school and learned things can be alienating. I imagine the 1 out of 10 doctors surveyed who DIDN’T say smoking was bad for you, or the 1 of 5 dentists who DIDN’T recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum, felt pretty alienated too.
Joe Falco
What’s not being said in the article is that the US has had a 40+ year experiment with the Republican vision of a 2nd Gilded Age which has led to conditions in this country being worse off than before as a whole, and that Democrats want to do the opposite to better this country, not just do it to “Soak the Rich”.
gvg
Why is it a fake class war when what they do is hurt the poor and middle class?
There is something of watch the train wreck when you see poor and middle class whites voting GOP. If it was only about class, that wouldn’t make sense…actually, it doesn’t make sense anyway. Christianity as written in the Bible is pretty socialist leaning and not what we call conservative at all. In our society, class is not just economics though.
cope
“Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes” might as well be the GOP mantra. That the MSM fails to call them on this is also a contributing factor.
hueyplong
“Alienated” isn’t even in the neighborhood of what they should be made to feel, when “pariahs” and “criminal defendants” seem a better fit for so many people.
Another Scott
Made me look. After the old NYMag piece, his links are to:
Uday/Qsay (I get them mixed up)
Murdoch rag in the UK
Beardy guy on Ben Shapiro’s blog
Ben Shapiro
Bald guy at NR
Why should we care what those guys think??
I don’t think I’m missing much by not reading Chait. Could be wrong.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Fair Economist
One thing I think is being missed is that well-off well-educated people are NOT voting against their self-interest. I stand to inherit a decent sum from my parents; tax increases might mean I’d inherit somewhat less – but I will still have more than enough for the way I choose to live. A fascist or neo-fascist regime, OTOH, *would* be a serious threat to my happiness and well-being. It is 100% rational self-interest for me to prefer to slightly less well off in my old age to living in constant fear of a knock on the door or a botched pandemic response.
NotMax
@waspuppet
Dentists sure did cover the bases when it came to endorsements. And another.
;)
Betty Cracker
@gvg: The damage is very real. The fake part is the coverage of how it’s playing out. I think it stems from the horserace coverage mindset, e.g., an influx of non-college whites into the Republican Party means they’re legit challenging Democrats on the policy front to represent those voters.
They aren’t, as Republicans’ legislative record unambiguously shows. But people like Marco Rubio get breathless coverage for stuff like the scheme to address family leave issues by letting people raid their own Social Security funds.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: @gvg: The Rs flatter their egos and hate the same people and that is enough. Same with the BJP and the demographic that votes for them in India.
Captain C
To be fair, hating on the majority of your neighbors tends not to make them feel better about you.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@gvg: It’s more than a class war. It’s also poor whites fear losing status and there is the city versus rural divide. I think the later is why The Base is losing their shit, because their own party isn’t representing Rural issues in government.
Ken
Are you saying that a four-hour trip to a rural diner to interview typical salt-of-the-earth citizens doesn’t give the full experience of living there?
(Skipping lightly over the fact that 80% of the time, said citizens turn out to be local Republican party officials — as a blogger was rude enough to point out the last three times they were interviewed by that newspaper….)
Mary G
@Fair Economist: Exactly. I have more money than I ever expected to – not millions, but I don’t have to agonize over my budget the way I did for years. I still remember how stressful that could be, and I don’t want to keep so many other Americans in that situation.
Omnes Omnibus
@Fair Economist: I’ve seen the question phrased this way: If you were a well off person, where would you rather live, Amsterdam or Manila? That’s the difference a thriving middle class and a social safety net make. And requires paying taxes.
Chief Oshkosh
Translation: The smart people are tired of dealing with the stupid shit that stupid people do. You are now fucked, winger, and nobody gives a shit, not even your spouse and kids
ETA: Waspuppet says it nicer.
leeleeFL
Even before I read the entire post, or the other comments, I must thank you, Ms. Cracker, for re- naming our so not beloved area. Ever after, I shall say I live in South Cockroach Acres! I am still cleaning the screen on my phone!
Perfection must be embraced!
Adam Lang
“Upper middle class” is doing a shit-ton of work in that quote.
I make well over 200k a year and consider myself ‘rich’ by normal human standards and I live in San Francisco and I wouldn’t be taxed at 60%.
Brit in Chicago
OP: “The upper-middle-class voters the party has been attracting in greater numbers would face combined tax rates at or around 60 percent, in the highest tax states.”
Define “upper-middle class”. From stuff I’ve read, you’d need taxable income (after all the deductions a clever accountant can think of) of more than $400K per individual (not household). Is that upper-middle class nowadays? Maybe it is, but “upper X% of the income earners” would have been a lot more informative, and less likely to alarm most of Chait’s readers.
Brit in Chicago
Omnes Omnibus: “I’ve seen the question phrased this way: If you were a well off person, where would you rather live, Amsterdam or Manila? That’s the difference a thriving middle class and a social safety net make. And requires paying taxes.”
Yes!
waspuppet
@schrodingers_cat: Conservatives have shown for years that we’re the only people they really hate. They’re actively cool with Russia and, as we’ve just seen, give a “respect” nod of the head to the Taliban. They don’t talk about anyone with as much sheer, visceral hatred as they talk about Pelosi, AOC, Obama or Kamala Harris.
The Dangerman
So, if the new book by Woodward is right, Milley took action to prevent potential catastrophe…
…and the Right is apoplectic at Milley because of it.
Amazing.
Thirsty Pelican
Came here to point out that the 60 percent tax rate he cites is bunk, but I see others have already made that point. If he wanted to be honest about it, he would use the combined effective tax rate, which he declined to do. Just seems like lying with numbers.
Just Chuck
@The Dangerman: Catastrophe is what they want. Every fascist needs a crisis from which to rise to power.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam Lang: IAMNACPA, but that seems like wild, and journalistically irresponsible, exaggeration and oversimplification of federal, state and local taxes.
And to every editor of every political article having to do with tax policy: Learn about marginal taxation.
Anonymous At Work
@Another Scott: Keep him away from talking about “privilege” and teachers’ unions/charter schools and Chait is a sharp writer, very good at flaying Republicans and the media.
Baud
I guess it’s theoretically possible to get to 60% if you combine all federal, state, and local income property and sales taxes. Isn’t here a healthy federal tariff on imported alcohol?
The difference is the delta, however.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Anonymous At Work:
after being dragged about it for years, he finally started mentioning his wife’s job when he writes about charter schools, now acts all indignant when people point out he spent years not mentioning it. I like a lot of his writing, but that’s a real mark against him, IMHO.
Suzanne
World’s smallest violin.
It feels just the same being left-wing and living in Red America.
This is why, I think, things like AOC’s dress at the Met Gala are important: being visible normalizes the position, and that is important if you feel detached and alone and alienated and semi-crazy!
Nicole
Thanks to 40 years of trickle-down, the idea of white privilege is all these non college educated, “economically challenged” white folk have, and so they’ll vote GOP for it. Never mind that the GOP will continue to take away their economic privileges, to continue to give to members of the Lucky Sperm Club.
And the rich people so frantic to keep fleecing the middle and working class aren’t thinking things through- the Amsterdam vs Manila comment, above, is apt. My stepmom is Cambodian by birth (came to the US as a refugee in 1980) and in the early aughts we went to Cambodia visit family for three weeks. We spent a day with a lady she knew in Phnom Penh who was very well off. The lovely lady and her equally lovely daughter took us to lunch at a delicious restaurant, where we ate under the watchful eyes of the two heavily armed guards that went with them everywhere because of the threat of kidnapping. It was the most stressful meal I’ve ever eaten. And then had an afternoon at their home that was behind high walls. I can’t fathom why anyone would want to live a life in that much fear of one’s own neighbors.
(Twenty years since of Hun Sen consolidating his strong man powers hasn’t helped any, I’m sure.)
Llelldorin
@Fair Economist: Just so. This has been the animating force in the Democratic Party for almost a century — the modern Democratic Party really got going in the 1930s when a lot of wealthy northerners concluded that a communist revolution would be terrible for their way of life, and so decided that helping the poor was critical, even at some cost in higher taxes.
Matt McIrvin
When I was growing up, it was intensely alienating even being a fairly anodyne liberal in Fairfax County, Virginia. This was accepted as something we soft bleeding hearts just had to suck up and live with if we weren’t going to get with the program and love Ronnie Reagan. I don’t see why people who wear “fuck your feelings” T-shirts need to be coddled about this.
Aimai
I object to his framing as our current regressive tax policies transfer wealth (distribute it) upwards to wealthy people and corporations in the form of taxing consumption and work paid out to corporations and the military/industrial complex.
Baud
Speaking of alienating experiences, this seems apt.
Ken
You’d almost have to include them, since the FICA and Medicare taxes stop before you get to the highest federal brackets.
hueyplong
@Baud: But he didn’t say anything about the West Bank. Checkmate, lib.
Fair Economist
@Mary G: That’s a genuine, humane, open-hearted reason for relatively well-off people to support Democrats even if their taxes go up. And I feel the same. But my point was that even if I *were* callous and hard-hearted, it would still be in my interest to support Democrats, because they are pushing for a safer, calmer, and healthier society. You literally couldn’t pay me enough to live under Putin. I am better off now than even a billionaire in Russia, under constant threat of polonium tea or an involuntary swan dive off a highrise.
Eljai
This Kasie Hunt twitter thread is a prime example of a beltway press hack characterizing Democrats as elites. It doesn’t even make any sense. She seems to be saying that even though Gavin Newsom won decisively over the recall efforts, Democrats still have to prove that they can govern everyone. Then she cites polls that show Californians were concerned about crime and homelessness. Yeah, and they were also greatly concerned about covid and they chose to keep Newsom in office. And when have republicans ever shown that they give a fuck about the homeless? Oh, but it’s Democrats who are in trouble here. Arghhh
Baud
@Fair Economist:
Plus, historically speaking, the economy does better under Democrats than the GOP.
HinTN
@Matt McIrvin:
Exactly
Also too, thank you, Ms C, for another excellent read.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: That horrible crime got remarkably little national coverage, which is telling.
Suzanne
From Chait’s piece:
Ben Shapiro is such a dumb fucking fuckshit fuckhead. You motherfucking potato: taxing rich people is not a revolutionary position. It is mainstream. That’s the fucking point.
ETA: “Taxing” is not “eating”. God. These people would be pitiable if they weren’t so damn dangerous.
Baud
@Suzanne:
“Asshat Radicals” is a cool band name though.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Yep. Looking forward to the rally in support of that political prisoner.
Patricia Kayden
taumaturgo
I agree with your point, is not exclusively as many voters believe to be an R vs L issue, is a corruption issue and it will go on as long as legalized brides are considered legal. The sooner voters realize that both parties play the same corrupt games, the sooner they will begin to coalesce in an unstoppable movement to fight corruption head-on.
J.
This post reminded me of this quote, misattributed to John Steinbeck but still true:
Suzanne
I think Chait is indirectly touching on something critical, though: feeling alienated politically is actually really bad (for the people I agree with, of course). It makes people less likely to engage by voting, donating, or volunteering, because all of that feels pointless and potentially exposing, and most people don’t want to risk friendships and relationships, and most people are not bold enough to be a proud outlier among their cohort. Increased visibility is incredibly normalizing, and that is a critical step toward more organized and effective political activity. That’s why I think the Dems are well-served by imagecraft.
The Moar You Know
@Fair Economist: I learned this lesson completely when living in SF as a non-well-off (but well educated) person. You have to step over homeless people to get into your crap apartment EVERY DAY FOR FIVE YEARS, occasionally fending off assaults from those same people, and you’ll come to one of two conclusions, and since one the things I learned in the course of becoming well-educated is that genocide is wrong, you get left with only one conclusion:
1. Raise my taxes, I don’t care, just get these fucking people off my doorstep.
2. Kill ’em all.
A nation as rich as America should have not one person living on the streets. Raise my damn taxes and make it happen.
MisterForkbeard
@taumaturgo: As always, I see your answer is “Democrats are corrupt and evil”. What a surprise.
Anonymous At Work
@J.: The Good Place did it best:
Eljai
@The Moar You Know: I came to a similar conclusion stepping over homeless people in SF on my way to the bus stop. Just raise my taxes and find these people some housing. It’s actually a kind of a selfish reflex on my part. I wanted to help but I didn’t know what to do and I’m not a good Samaritan type. Put together a government program and pay the social workers well and I will gladly pay taxes to support it.
Sure Lurkalot
@Joe Falco:
All so true. I think the hard part is getting to the “bettering”, because Democrats usually first have to repair what was broken, often intentionally. If sometimes we feel that it’s 2 steps back, 1 step forward, that’s because it is.
Suzanne
@Eljai: I am mostly in agreement with you. I take it a step further, though…. I *only* want to solve the issue of getting housing for these people (for example) through government means. I want the safety net to be professionalized, expert, dispassionate, specialized, nonprofitable, unsexy, steady, and mildly bureaucratic. I do not want piecemeal private charity, bullshit like GoFundMe, and FSM save me from some techbro who decides that we need to “disrupt” anything.
Starboard Tack
@MisterForkbeard:
It’s true. There are corrupt Democrats. The difference is that Democratic corruption is retail. With Republicans, it’s wholesale.
Hoodie
@The Moar You Know: I remember a conversation I had with a German acquaintance: “It’s not like we care more about the poor, it’s just that we’d feel embarrassed to live in a place with such conditions.”
Cacti
@Eljai: I was just about to mention Kasie Hunt.
Called it last night. For the Beltway courtier press, Newsom winning in a blowout would somehow be “bad news for Democrats”.
If he was still alive, I’m sure it would also be good news for John McCain.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: That’s so true. I’ve struggled with it a bit since moving from a light red Romney-ish Republican town in a blue county to a rabidly pro-Trump bastion a few years back. I knew what I was getting into since this is my home county (which I’d previously fled immediately upon graduating from high school), and I knew my Trumpy relatives here were representative of the general mindset. But yeah, it’s alienating. To say the least.
Brantl
@taumaturgo:While there are corrupt democrats in politics, they are few and far between, compared to corrupt republicans. Your argument is weak sauce, at best.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hoodie: As it should be. We are an unbelievably rich country.
Obdurodon
@Barbara: I don’t think that’s accurate. Not all journalists grew up in the city. Their knowledge of non-urban life might be outdated, significantly second-hand, and/or tinged by the alienation that caused them to leave before they became journalists, but to say it’s absent is incorrect. Not all rural areas are completely red either.
I think the problem with journalism is not so much their rural vs. urban origin but the kind of people they have to interact with most to do their jobs. A political reporter is by necessity going to get a lot of their information from politicians and political flacks. Business reporters, entertainment reporters, etc. all suffer the same problem to varying degrees. They have to actively resist the pull toward the dominant one or two narratives, and too few do.
Ken
@Suzanne: Illinois seems to have stumbled into that path for housing the homeless. Pre-pandemic there were a lot of county-level agencies that arranged nightly ad-hoc housing, usually at churches. During the pandemic these agencies, with help from the state, began housing them in hotels (which were glad for the revenue) where people could stay for weeks or months.
One result, big enough to get the attention of the county and state governments, was a reduction in the use of emergency services — fewer police calls, fewer ambulance rides, less use of the emergency room. The stability also gave the homeless more opportunity to get back on their feet (many homeless are temporarily so, as a result of losing a job or other sudden emergency). Now the governments and agencies are looking hard at how this longer-term housing can be sustained.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: Republicans have a mindset that they expect to feel comfortable and well-liked. That’s why “canceling” feels so big to them. They’re used to feeling comfortably middle. Snowflakes.
This is part of why I think some of them genuinely believe that Trump could not have lost: they honest-to-God can’t fathom there being enough people who see things differently. Much of that is because most of the people who think differently than they do are quiet about it, because being the outlier is hard for many.
zhena gogolia
@AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue team: “North Cockroach Acres, FL” alone is pretty brilliant.
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: If I killed a Trump voter for voting Trump, that victim would be deified for years in the national media and I’d be killed by the cops before seeing the inside of a courtroom.
Germany had the same double standard pre-Hitler, which is why he got a few months in jail for trying to overthrow the government, instead of the decades he’d have gotten had he been a liberal.
Cacti
@Suzanne: The straight white male has been the normative US citizen since the founding of the Republic. The idea of a country where that’s no longer the case feels cataclysmic to many of them. Hence the absolute racist meltdown when Obama was elected, then reelected.
Black men aren’t supposed to sleep in the President’s bed in their world.
jonas
The problem is, so many of them have been convinced that “rural issues” = stockpiling guns and racing around in Rolling Coal trucks and pwning libs. Republicans represent that very well. Now, as I noted in another thread, they’re also furious with the monopolistic commodity firms, seed companies, and other forces that keep prices low and farmers mired in debt these days, but when it comes down to doing something about that versus voting for someone because their campaign commercial has them driving a jacked-up pickup with a giant Jesus face airbrushed on the hood and firing an assault rifle in the air, it’s no contest. I’m not sure what we can do about that.
piratedan
@Eljai: yeah I totally understand that Frustration and tell us Katie, what are the GOP plans to address crime and homelessness? Would they suggest that all serving time be issued rakes to clean up our forests? Sweeping change to ensure white collar crime goes unnoticed so we can continue to catch the “real villains?”
All of the problems that exist today are somehow Democratic Party problems, and apparently the GOP bears no responsibility to address them or even see them as problems.
In regards to the Underwood/AOC “methodologies”, I don’t understand why we can’t have both? AOC resonates with certain folks, and I can certainly understand the appeal that Underwood and someone like Porter bring to the table (doing the work, exposing the problem, solving the problem)… I almost liken it to the idea that AOC draws fire and allows Underwood and Porter to do what they do without fanfare.. maybe that’s the intent even?
Its noted that most successful teams have people who play to different strengths being in an environment that allow them to succeed, for all I know, maybe Underwood doesn’t WANT the spotlight (and for all we know, it could be the media refuses to give it to her because she’s not “shiny” enough for them).
What I do understand is that we need all types, playing at all angles to beat back this religious fascism that has been unleashed upon us by the likes of Mr. Leo, Mr. Murdoch and Koch Industries and their empires that shape our news and our lives, and in our Democratic Big Tent traditions will welcome anyone who does the heavy lifting or the cheerleading or whatever else is needed to keep us from killing the planet and each other.
Suzanne
@Cacti:
Agreed. The destabilizing thing that they’re all panties-in-twist about in the past few months is women going to college more than men (that WSJ piece is freaking them out) and the drop in the white birthrate. They don’t want women to get educated and leave the barefoot-and-pregnant model.
Hoodie
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s like we have a shit aesthetic in this country. I’m currently taking the train from Raleigh to DC. It’s not terrible, the WiFi is actually not bad. But, geez, this is supposed to be a main line from Charlotte and Raleigh to DC and it sucks compared to what you’d see in Europe, China, Japan or Korea. Raleigh to DC is really too damn short a distance to fly, to say nothing about the greenhouse effect of such short hop flights. Traffic on I-95 always sucks. It should be a 2-2.5 hour train ride, with a stop in Richmond. Hell, just extend Acela down to Atlanta, we don’t have to go 200 mph. Instead, you’re stuck on CSX right of way with 30 mph speed limitations every so often and often shunted to a siding for priority freight. Like our healthcare system, it’s embarrasing.
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: Yeah.
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia: Note that Republican men are now saying that a college degree shouldn’t provide financial benefits. I love to see how they try to devalue something once women start kicking their asses at it.
rikyrah
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
B ecause, they don’t give a shyt about them. Period. Never did.
J R in WV
@leeleeFL:
When we lived in Florida, we were told straight up that those were not cockroaches, but were a completely different bug called a Palmetto Bug. You now are telling me that those honorable friends were lying to us?!!! Not a bit amazed.
;~)
catothedog
This is really a red herring. The real problem, which both parties will not touch, is unearned income, and that shows the extent of corruption in both parties. But more so the corruption of the political process, because the people who make unearned income are those who fund dark money for both parties.
It’s the bane of leftist politics to obsess over high wages and benefit cutoffs
The annual income for a dual income, single child couple in San Francisco County is estimated to be 123K as what is needed to cover basic family expenses (basic needs plus all relevant taxes)
In Wichita County Kansas the same is 63K.
And no, that is not some crap I pulled out my wazoo. There is a detailed analysis with data available at https://livingwage.mit.edu/. You can calculate this COL for every county in the USA. The actual breakdown of costs, for each expense category, is included in there
You can think 100K is in the top 1% and that would be true in Kansas for 2 adults + 1 kid. But the fact is that 100K would be nowhere near a living wage in San Francisco or many parts of California or many other big cities across USA. The national top 1% and top 5% numbers are meaningless. Majority of those are older, salaried folks from high cost of living areas, and those people are one job loss away from disaster. The income is a reflection of cost-of-living, not wealth, and also experience -older people earring higher. People have to live where the jobs are, not otherwise.
This country would be much better off with
There is only one class that controls this country by setting everyone at each others throats – its the 0.01%. And they have paid propagandists/agitators on every medium -social media, newspaper, magazine, trade publication, TV, economists, think tanks dedicated to keep the obscenity of the plunder, wealth and control of the 0.01% hidden.
A wise political move would be to split the 0.01% (or even the 0.1%) from the rest. It would be a political winner. However it won’t happen. Reason one is the above – all media is under their control.
But reason two is the killer. People are provincial. They look the what they can perceive. They know the local doctor or double income New York professional. They don’t know Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos. or Koch.
There is a world of difference between wages of 400K and unread income of 400K. And by God, the obsession that the banker’s kid might get free college .. why the shit should it matter, if they pay high enough tax.
I don’t earn anywhere close to 400K. I am just ranting because the left is set on losing political strategies. The last thread on AOC vs underwood was a prime example: everyone is bothered with AOC (allegedly) torpedoing candidates in marginal districts, while no one is bothered with safe D+30 electorates electing more leftists candidates (hint: Feinstein)
J R in WV
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And what does lying screed-generator Chait’s “sweet bride” actually do for money? Manage the National Charter School Profitability Sustainment Group? Or worse things?
danielx
@Cacti:
This.
It was apocalyptic for people of a certain mindset when Obama was elected and re-elected – hell, it was a harbinger of the end of the world. Their world, anyway, the one in which they reigned supreme based upon melanin deficiency.
topclimber
@Suzanne: Their other big problem is that when you are losing the long-term cultural war as badly as Conservatives are, you need to be strong in your beliefs. You know, like Liberals have to be in Red states and times.
When your whole raison d’etre is to be a good follower, this is particularly hard. Which is why I think being in the minority is so bad for white Republicans. They have little of the deep commitment to social ideals that many Liberals have, and none of the vibrant ethnic cultures that Black, Hispanic and Asian communities do. All they have is white grievance culture and religions their kids increasingly dismiss.
Soprano2
@The Moar You Know: I know people who believe there is a third alternative to the homeless problem: criminalize the way they have to live their lives and put them all in prison. That’s what they’re going to start doing here again. It’s now a crime here to sit in the median and ask people for anything, because supposedly it’s a traffic hazard. It’s just an excuse to lock up homeless people, because they don’t want to help them but they don’t want to see them, either. What’s sad is that if they’d spend that money actually trying to do something about it rather than arresting them and putting them in prison, they might actually be able to get some of them housed!
trnc
Give me a break. Living the high life while screaming about these places is a big part of their performance art.
LOL!
One thing I’d add to this is that no billionaire will actually suffer from any tax policies supported by a majority of dems. Even if Bezos were taxed at a 99% rate for everything he currently has, he’d still be worth tens of millions of dollars. Of course, no one is proposing a 99% or 90% or even 15% of everything – we’re proposing an additional 2.6% over current rates on future earnings, and to knock down some of the loopholes that allow Bezos to pay less than 5% in income taxes.
Fair Economist
@catothedog:
Flat wrong. The Democrats are *currently* proposing an increase to the capital gains tax, the main source of unearned income. Trump’s tax cut, OTOH, had several large *cuts* to taxes on unearned income.
The truth is BOTH parties are actively trying to not just touch, but make MAJOR changes to unearned income taxes – the Republican cutting and the Democrats increasing. There is a big difference between the parties right now.
Geminid
@Hoodie: The “Bipartisan” physical infrstructure bill will do a lot for passenger rail across the country. High speed rail won’t get much attention, but I think the money will go further working out botlenecks and expanding conventional passenger rail service. Travellers who want rapid transit will still be able to fly. Air travel is not going away soon, and at ~4% of our global carbon footprint it’s a significant problem. But there are ways to reduce air travel’s carbon footprint, and I think they will start to implemented by the end of this decade.
These investments will create good paying jobs as well income for private companies. This is a very promising kind of wealth redistribution. Some money will come from taxes on higher income people, and some will come from the many folks around the world who want to buy U.S. Treasury bonds. If judiciously made, these investments will contribute to sustained economic growth benefiting people across the income spectrum.
StringOnAStick
@The Moar You Know: I am no longer friends with a couple we’ve known for years, traveled with and were happy to see move to the same state we just did because they are all in on Option 2: kill all the homeless. They want zero dollars spent to help the homeless because they think it is strictly a “lifestyle choice”. No help for the homeless is, I was told, a way to “make the problem solve itself”. If that isn’t an endorsement of genocide against the homeless, I don’t know what is. Fuck those people, they can go find some new friends because this old friend is done with them.
Mike G
@The Dangerman:
So, if the new book by Woodward is right, Milley took action to prevent potential catastrophe…
…and the Right is apoplectic at Milley because of it.
Not a surprise. Fascists demand domination, and consider obstructing them a greater crime than anything they might be doing. You aren’t allowed to question their actions, they’re always right because of who they are.
JaneE
We are still enough of a “Christian country” that most people recognize a responsibility to help the people who they share the country with. People know what is fair and unfair, and most will side with making things more fair and not less. It is hard to justify thousands of children going to bed hungry while a dozen rich men could lose 95% of what they have and still have enough to eat for the rest of their lives.
The GOP has done a good job of demonizing and dehumanizing anyone who accepts federal benefits for food or shelter while lionizing those who accept subsidies and tax breaks worth many times the safety net benefits. The Democrats’ problem is that sane and reasonable and humane solutions to problems don’t grab headlines and attention from the media.
NobodySpecial
Simplist thing to remember: The media and the pundits are not your friends, and they are not neutral reporters.
They are the enemy. Villago was always correct.
Omnes Omnibus
@JaneE: Being a “Christian country” has nothing to do with it.
taumaturgo
@Starboard Tack: Corruption in Congress is an equal opportunity exercise since the corrupted politician’s answer to the same donors class. I grant you democrats are a bit coy and extremely successful at hiding behind an eloquent “progressive” fake rhetoric while the GQP is right in your face showering tax money to the plutocrats while denying the basic voter’s needs and wants. Corruption is the main reason meaningful change that would threaten the status quo is openly opposed by one party and covertly impeded, slowed, and minimalized by the other.
AJ
@zhena gogolia: Haha I only noticed that this evening. As they used to say of good people when I lived in the UK, “she’s quality.”