The basic idea is that the super-rich and their allies are in the driver’s seat of the GOP’s policy agenda — and what those elites want, more than anything else, are tax cuts and attacks on the social safety net. Recognizing that making the rich richer is an unpopular policy agenda, they have married their political fortunes to the forces of cultural reaction. The GOP wins elections by engaging in thinly veiled appeals to racism, xenophobia, and sexism; the super-rich win when those GOP majorities pass deeper and deeper tax cuts.
Fox News, which Hacker and Pierson call in their book “the epicenter of resentment politics,” plays a crucial role in cementing this relationship.
Except this is all untrue.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the top 1% richest Americans, the vast majority - vast! - are all Democrats. The Republicans have a handful of billionaires and corporations. The rest and the biggest are all Democrats.
The self-labelled elite are 99% Democrat.
The Democrats redefine racism - if you think everyone should be treated equally and have equal chances at success, you're a racist! - and label the Republicans racist. They redefine sexism - if you think having a penis disqualifies you from calling yourself a woman, you're a sexist! - and label the Republicans sexist.
This is an example of how a good offence is the best defence. The Democrats are the party of the rich and the elite but work overtime to label the Republicans that way to distract from it.