Brian O. Sheppard wrote:
>So why do tax cuts for the overclass get through Congress? Why do
>Republicans consistently win elections? Why won't Nathan's Dems run
>on an explicit soak the fat boys agenda?
Actually, most Dems in 2002 did run on cancelling the tax cuts on the wealthy that Bush is trying to accelerate, including DLC types like Erstine Bowles down in North Carolina. You just didn't hear much about most of those folks because most of them won their elections easily. As I repeat, 80% of Dems run on all the strong positions folks demand, yet people insist on attributing the position of the most moderate 20% to the whole party.
Why do Republicans win elections? Because they find enough non-tax issues to run on to "wedge" working class voters-- social issues, race issues, the Confederate flag, the war on terror, etc. And the GOP often loses elections, as they did in 1986, which led to the Congress having the votes to push through the first tax increase under Bush I, and then with the 1992 election, Clinton and the Dems were able to push through the 1993 tax increases that put the effective tax rate on the wealthy HIGHER than it was before Reagan came into office in 1981.
So soak the rich politics do work at times, although they can also get reversed by strategic politics by the GOP. And of course by nihilistic third party runs by Greens who think trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy don't constitute significant differences between the parties.
-- Nathan Newman