Argument by clickbait
by Tom Sullivan
This morning E.J. Dionne takes on income redistribution as a conservative wedge issue. In particular, Rep. Paul Ryan’s lame attempt to brand non-GOP-approved economic policies as morally suspect with his recent coinage of “envy economics.” To be sure, it’s less insulting than “makers vs. takers.” And it’s more suitable for Sunday morning chat fests than Conrad Hilton III’s “f_cking peasants,” if no more mature. But it’s the thought that counts.
You’ve gotta hand it to the GOP intelligentsia. They seem to have an endless supply-side of these arguments. Dog whistles for the clickbait generation.
Dionne asks, as long as we’re branding opponents’ policies, why not brand Ryan’s “greed economics“?
Ryan’s opening rhetorical bid is unfortunate because there are signs that at least some conservatives (including, sometimes, Ryan himself) seem open to policies that would redistribute income to Americans who have too little of it.
Yes, conservatives and just about everybody else — except, perhaps, for truly austere libertarians — are for redistribution. But almost everyone on the right and many of the more timid Democrats want to deny it. This form of intellectual dishonesty hampers a candid debate about solving the interlocking problems of stagnating wages, rising inequality and declining social mobility.
Ryan attempted over the weekend to paint the president’s economic proposals as unAmerican, unfit for an “aspirational” and “optimistic” people. Besides, they don’t work, according to Ryan. Dionne counters:
Well. Regiments of Republicans claimed that Obama’s policies, and especially Obamacare, would be “job killers.” In the face of 58 straight months of private-sector job growth, will they ever admit their claims were absolutely wrong? Will anyone even ask them? And like them or not, aren’t Obama’s proposals on higher education, child care and pre-kindergarten programs all about aspiration and optimism?
The irony—usually lost on champions of “trickle down” such as Ryan—is that where once he argued that Obama’s policies pitted class against class and would stifle “the job creators,” as Jonathan Weisman observed, now Ryan argues that those same policies have “exacerbated inequality” and made things worse, saying, “The wealthy are doing really well. They’re practicing trickle-down economics now.”
For your enjoyment, found on Pinterest:
