Appropriations

Appropriations

by digby

Greg Sargent has a good post up this morning deconstructing the latest right wing appropriation of liberal rhetoric to advance its own goals. This time it’s on income inequality. The bottom line is that they are now agreeing that income inequality is bad but that it’s because government is standing in the way of the “jaaahb creators.” This is, of course, the confidence fairy zombie (which would be my Halloween costume if I had one.) What else is new?

But I noticed a subtler one as well, and it’s one to keep an eye on. Greg points to this as one of the stages of GOP rhetorical appropriation:

We never said inequality and tax unfairness aren’t problems. (See Paul Ryan’s speech, in which he said that “nobody disagrees” that “bus drivers shouldn’t pay a higher effective tax rate than millionaires.”)

To those of us who believe in progressive taxation, this would mean that millionaires should pay a higher effective tax rate, right? But to people who want to protect millionaires’ from taxes, this would mean a flat tax, which is completely unprogressive, but would perfectly fit their definition of “tax unfairness.”

The right is extremely proficient at using the current zeitgeist to their own ends. It’s very clever and often quite successful.

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