Who's Standing in the Way of the Economic Left's Dreams of Redistribution of Wealth...?
The Affluent Social Left, Which Doesn't Want to Share Their Money With the Riff-Raff

Shock.

Almost as shocking to find out that Man of the People Charles Schumer represents big banks' and Wall Street's interests as if he was getting huge donations from them. Which, oh yeah, he is.

Thomas Edsall, the longtime Washington Post reporter now writing on his New York Times blog, laments the increasing tendency of high-income Americans to vote Democratic. That leaves the Democrats with an increasingly affluent constituency, presumably unwilling (or less willing than others) to support redistributive policies like Bernie Sanders's proposal for higher tax rates on the affluent.

"In the past," Edsall writes, "Democrats could support progressive, redistributive policies knowing that the costs would fall largely on Republicans. That is no longer the case. Now supporting these policies requires the party to depend on the altruistic idealism of millions of supporters who, despite being relatively well off, often feel financially pressed themselves."

Michael Barone notes that Hillary only won the primary over Bernie by getting enormous victory margins in wealthy liberal counties.

posted by Ace at 03:06 PM

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