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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumIn Praise of a Reasonable Progressivism
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/103073/obama-populist-progressive-income-inequality-roosevelt-buffett-ruleIn Praise of a Reasonable Progressivism
Timothy Noah
May 3, 2012 | 12:00 am
Editors note: No Democratic president has won in recent decades on a platform of economic populism. But with the rhetoric of the 99 percent still in the air, and a proposal for a Fair Share Tax at the center of his current platform, it seems President Obama might be attempting to do just that. Weve asked a number of TNR writers to discuss whether it makes sense for Obama to run as a populist. Can a Democrat win on a populist message? Should Obama try?
Although I havent made a close study of it, Im told that the populist themes spouted by Al Gore in 2000 and by John Kerry in 2004 did not stir the proletariat. I think its going to be different this year, because income inequality has finally become a topic of interest to the public, and because the GOP has become so gorgeously vulnerable in this area. It has a presidential candidate who got rich in finance, and a House majority leader whos willing to say out loud that hed rather tax poor people than raise taxes on rich people. God doesnt furnish opportunities like this very often.
But Im not sure populist is the right word for what President Obama is already doing (or, for that matter, what Gore and Kerry were doing in 2000 and 2004). I think the right word is progressive. I dont mean progressive in its contemporary sense as a euphemism for left-liberal. I mean progressive in its historic sense.
The Progressives of the early twentieth century (some of whom founded this magazine) actually started Americas discussion about income distribution; the first serious study on the topic was published in 1915 by a largely-forgotten economist named Willford King, a student of the famous Progressive economist Richard T. Ely at the famously Progressive University of Wisconsin. (To find out why it wasnt until the Progressive Era that Americans got interested in income distribution youll have to read my book.) The Progressives were more like Barack Obama than the Populists were. They valued inductive reasoning and rationality, as Obama doesthey were mad for statisticsand they felt more comfortable operating within the established corridors of power. Although they had their shortcomings (most famously a susceptibility to the pseudoscience of eugenics), they were freer from the racism, xenophobia, and inchoate resentment that often fueled the Peoples Party.
President Obamas argument for the Buffett Rule, which would require millionaires to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes, isnt fueled by a pitchfork-waving hatred of the rich. It was a rich guyWarren Buffettwho first suggested it! Rather, its an appeal to reason: It doesnt make sense for Buffett to pay less in taxes than his secretary does. Just as people toss the phrase class warfare around way too casuallyweve actually had some class warfare in this country, and people died fighting itso, Im starting to think, were too quick to call populist any endorsement of the idea that there needs to be some check on the wealth and power of rich individuals and rich corporations. Obama has quite plainly expressed that he aims to follow in the footsteps not of William Jennings Bryan but of Teddy Roosevelt. In the current political environment (where TR gets branded a socialist) thats more than brave enough. And I say, bully to the president for going there.
Timothy Noah is a senior editor at The New Republic.
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In Praise of a Reasonable Progressivism (Original Post)
babylonsister
May 2012
OP
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)1. I like this. Kicked and Bookmarked! n/t