While discussing the comments of various bloggers to the now out of the closet tax policy of President Obama, Roger Kimball reminds readers of the genesis of what drives much of the present administration's policies that have consumed the political debate of the last six months. Having been an avid reader of The New Criterion since its inception, I've always found Kimball's writing a good place for opinions on a variety of literature, art, and history topics that have not been poisoned by post modern fascism and its titular dictator, the Modern Language Association. Kimball's article may be one of the most important discussions of the differences raging between conservatives and liberals today. It's a must read.
Here are some of the highlights:
it doesn't matter that increasing taxes on successful people will not bring in much dough. What matters is punishing success, not filling the treasury.No one should be surprised at this. Whatever else you can say about Obama, he has never made a secret of his redistributionist philosophy. Economics for him is not about the creation of wealth. It is about 1) the redistribution of wealth and 2) penalizing those who have had the temerity to succeed.
... The bottom line is that when Obama invokes "fairness," he wants us to feel guilty about economic success. This is the secret of his appeal to the socialistically inclined...
Behind this redistributionist fantasy, I noted, is not only the rancid ideal of an egalitarian society. There is also a rage against success and the wealth that it brings in its wake. That rage is a prime emotional ingredient in the liberal worldview.
Quoting James Piereson, Kimball pegs this "rage against success" as a form of Punitive Liberalism:
Pierson's great insight is to stress the punitive, the chastising side of this orgy of guilt [liberal guilt about American prosperity]. Liberals like Obama come telling us they are making a better world; they omit to mention that what they mean by "a better world" is a world that is distinctly worse for certain groups, in particular groups that liberals decided had hitherto been unfairly privileged [i. e. the upper middle class, or as Dick Gephardt called them, "the winners of life's lottery"].
Please read this whole article. It lays open not only the redistributionist agenda of the Obama administration but also the penalizing motives that drive their efforts on policy such as health care, Cap and Trade, and Stimulus spending.
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Filed under:
Barack Obama, Democrats, Politics
Tags: Redistribution of Wealth, Taxes
Comments (8)
This states something I've ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by iwogisdead | July 16, 2009 9:36 PM | Score: 19 (19 votes cast)
This states something I've concluded after decades of observing liberals:
It's not that some people have less; they are furious that some people have more.
It's like the little kid looking at his nice, rounded ice cream cone: "But, Johnny has more!"
The problem is that the little kids are now in charge.
1. Posted by iwogisdead | July 16, 2009 9:36 PM |
Score: 19 (19 votes cast)
Posted on July 16, 2009 21:36
2. Posted by davidt | July 16, 2009 10:05 PM | Score: 17 (17 votes cast)
If you aren't good enough to reach the same heights as others, then you must pull them down if you want to appear just as good as them.
Appearence over substance.
2. Posted by davidt | July 16, 2009 10:05 PM |
Score: 17 (17 votes cast)
Posted on July 16, 2009 22:05
3. Posted by GarandFan | July 16, 2009 10:18 PM | Score: 17 (17 votes cast)
It's all about "fairness". Only problem is, those with less get to decide what's "fair". No other input needed.
3. Posted by GarandFan | July 16, 2009 10:18 PM |
Score: 17 (17 votes cast)
Posted on July 16, 2009 22:18
4. Posted by BPG | July 16, 2009 10:28 PM | Score: 12 (12 votes cast)
What's more disturbing? That in the 1950s Ayn Rand imagined and wrote Atlas Shrugged? Or that 60 years later it could potentially come to pass?
4. Posted by BPG | July 16, 2009 10:28 PM |
Score: 12 (12 votes cast)
Posted on July 16, 2009 22:28
5. Posted by Oyster | July 17, 2009 5:57 AM | Score: 8 (10 votes cast)
First you have to have operate on the assumption that other people have more because of "luck". That's the best way to describe Gephardt's lottery comment. A lot of people see it that way, unfortunately. If you can call it luck, you can then imagine that your own life is nothing but a crap shoot and you just keep getting snake eyes. In fact, this "luck" is really a situation where preparation met opportunity. Many people go to school for years to prepare for a rewarding career. They made sacrifices, avoided bad decisions and worked hard. That's not luck.
Bad luck stems from a situation that is not under your control.
Good luck is being born in a country where opportunity abounds.
5. Posted by Oyster | July 17, 2009 5:57 AM |
Score: 8 (10 votes cast)
Posted on July 17, 2009 05:57
6. Posted by bobdog | July 17, 2009 7:45 AM | Score: 12 (12 votes cast)
Obama spent his early career as a community organizer. His job was to nurse disaffection and class resentments to influence elections. He surrounded himself with hardline liberals and political infighters, immersed in radical Chicago politics. If your friends are people like Saul Alinsky, moony-eyed ACORN organizers, liberal academics stuck in the 1960's and nasty ward politicians, that's the way you see the world. It doesn't produce a thought process based on what's best for the American people, it produces a value system based on what's wrong with the American people.
Now give him a narcissistic personality, unrestricted power, a fillibuster proof legislature, and adoring, uncritical media.
It's payback time.
6. Posted by bobdog | July 17, 2009 7:45 AM |
Score: 12 (12 votes cast)
Posted on July 17, 2009 07:45
7. Posted by mag | July 17, 2009 8:44 AM | Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
Everybody here is hitting the nail right on the head. Jealousy and Envy the green eye monster in disguise as "fairness".
It is true in all phases of life. The best way for someone to feel good about themselves is to drag down others. This is what is behind all this socialism and liberalism.
I had an ex-friend like that. She could tear people apart like know one else. It made her feel so good about her own looks and situation in life...I think now she is a lonely old maid.
7. Posted by mag | July 17, 2009 8:44 AM |
Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
Posted on July 17, 2009 08:44
8. Posted by Flu-Bird | July 17, 2009 11:47 AM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Liberals want taxes on everything from big macs to 357s just to pay for healthcare for illegal aliens
8. Posted by Flu-Bird | July 17, 2009 11:47 AM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on July 17, 2009 11:47