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December 02, 2004
Obviously the problem is the solution
Howard Fineman writing in Newsweek:
On domestic policy, Rove has a theme at the ready: "the ownership society" he says the president wants to build. It's a bland phrase, but the ideas behind it are hardly status quo. One is to consider abolishing the income-tax system, replacing "progressive" (meaning graduated) rates with a flat tax or even a national sales tax or value-added tax. Another is to rechannel massive flows of tax money from Social Security to private savings accounts and into expanded medical savings accounts. Yet another is a crusade Bush and Rove have been pursuing since Texas: a national cap on damage awards in lawsuits.In all cases, Rove wants to force Democrats to defend taxes and lawyers. Trained in the ways of direct-mail targeting, he doesn't want to seduce the whole country, just an expanded version of what he's already got. He's aiming at fast-growing exurban areas, where small-business entrepreneurs—mostly Gen-Xers—tend to distrust the New Deal paradigm of government. "We want to pay increased attention to those vibrant small-business climates," says Rove.
And it is in these places, where suburbs meet what's left of the countryside, that the GOP's conservative stands on social issues are welcome even (perhaps even especially) among younger families searching for stability and reassurance in a world of Darwinian economics.
Let me get this straight, Rove wants to win support among "younger families searching for stability and reassurance in a world of Darwinian economics" by "abolishing the income-tax system, replacing 'progressive' (meaning graduated) rates with a flat tax or even a national sales tax or value-added tax." Make them feel more secure by increasing their share of the tax burden and reducing that of millionaires just as the national debt finally eclipses the GDP?
Now I understand what Rove means when he talks about a GOP century. If you can convince people the problem is the solution, they are simply always going to have more problems to solve aren't they?
Posted by Mike at December 2, 2004 08:13 PM
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