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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

U.S. Rep. John Galt

So exactly how angry are wealthy people becoming about the “socialistic” threat of a return to the tax policies of the bad old days of the 1990s? Listen to one of their more fervent advocates, via the Washington Independent’s David Weigel:

Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.), who gives his departing interns copies of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged,” told me today that the response to President Obama’s economic policies reminded him of what happened in the 51-year-old novel.
“People are starting to feel like we’re living through the scenario that happened in ‘Atlas Shrugged,’” said Campbell. “The achievers, the people who create all the things that benefit rest of us, are going on strike. I’m seeing, at a small level, a kind of protest from the people who create jobs, the people who create wealth, who are pulling back from their ambitions because they see how they’ll be punished for them.”

As anyone who’s read Rand’s mammoth and monomaniacal novel can tell you, the heroes of Atlas Shrugged are the capitalists who literally go on strike, bringing society to its knees by withholding their talents. Campbell seems to be warning us that today’s rich are getting tired of the terrible “punishment” they are enduring from the greedy parasites around them. We may soon be denied the life-giving talents of stock traders, bankers, mortgage brokers, strip-mall developers, and a whole host of other creative people who are yoked to the top tax bracket. They’ve done nothing wrong, but thanks to looting by the poor, the economy’s collapsed, and the best among us are being asked to pay.
I don’t know if John Campbell’s bought the whole Objectivist package from reading Rand, and privately considers all the nice churches in his California district evil temples of life-hating mysticism and theft. But like Rick Santelli, Cambell’s an authentic apostle of the angry overclass that’s sick of being betrayed by “losers” and then expected to help keep the scum alive.
Here’s hoping that Rep. Campbell’s “strike” begins no later than the end of his current term in the House.

2 comments on “U.S. Rep. John Galt

  1. Steve L Newcomer on

    I Have trouble seeing how the upper class can be tired of being punished by the little people of the country.
    At the beginning of the Regan revolution the to tax bracket was 71% and they did not revolt then, now it is 35% and may move to 38% far from the peak rates.
    The rate increase is the increase they voted on by not having the nerve to make them permanent in the first place because they knew in there heart’s it was to low and unsustainable for a country at war and as in debt as we are.
    I understand there theory of “starve the beast” but starve is the key word here it implies self destruction.
    As long as the tax system is used for social engineering instead of strictly revenue generation we are stuck with the tax system we are in.
    The fair system is a flat tax that is equal for all. yes they will pay more dollar wise but it will be the same percentage as everyone else. That scares them because as they howl about the nominal tax rate’s they fail to say what the effective tax rate for the wealthy is.
    True capitalists should have double standards.

    Reply

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