taxes.
Thus, for example, during the battle over George Bush’s proposed tax cut, billionaire music mogul David Geffen loudly bragged, “Speaking for myself, I don’t need a tax cut.” He loved paying taxes, he said, because it’s “a privilege to be an American citizen.” 2 This is pure braggadocio, intended to convey the information that Geffen has more money than God. “I want to pay more taxes” is a way of saying that, no matter how much the government takes, they will still have enough money to keep drinking Dom Perignon and making out in the hot tub.
Liberals obsess over the environment for the same reason they love crowing about how much they love to pay taxes: It is a way of separating themselves from the coupon-clippers. The environment is only the left’s most transparent expression of their contempt for the middle class.
Instead of “helping the poor” by cutting checks to the IRS from their unfathomable fortunes, it would be nice if liberals would just stop blocking ordinary people from using the public beaches. In early 2002, David Geffen, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg, and about one hundred other Malibu Marie Antoinettes erected chain-link fences to keep hoi polloi off the public beaches adjacent to their beachfront estates. The California Coastal Commission was forced to intervene to demand that the Hollywood left stop blocking access to the beach. Steve Hoye, former head of the Malibu Democratic Club, expressed shock at the arrogance of what he called “some of the best, most liberal people in Malibu.” 3
Liberals use the environment as a battering ram against the acquisitive middle class bumping up against the prerogatives of the fabulously wealthy. While California was experiencing rolling brownouts a few years ago, liberals steadfastly objected to building more power plants on the grounds that it would ruin the aesthetic of their hot tub lifestyles. Liberals want to prevent drilling in mudflats in Alaska, a place they would never visit, because they already have their Jacuzzis and can afford the electricity bills. Meanwhile working people need energy and could use the jobs. One cultural suggestion the Not-on-My-Beach movement might take from their beloved France is nuclear power. That would solve the alleged “greenhouse effect” immediately. But despite its acceptance by our lily-livered French friends, the left doesn’t like nuclear power, either.
Nothing would make liberal environmentalists so happy as an entire country that looked like the Hamptons: beautiful rich people living in solar-powered homes staffed with a phalanx of obedient servants who can’t afford SUVs. Liberals believe their fabulous wealth is a product of their unique brilliance, and the rest of us should live like aboriginals to preserve the view.
Republicans are simultaneously portrayed as the swine in third class and “the rich” (which, on the basis of Democrat tax proposals, evidently means “any guy with an alarm clock”). But for the incessant mind-numbing repetition of liberal propaganda, people would recognize this as a blinding contradiction. In fact—and contrary to another liberal myth—conservatives are aggressively anti-elitist. Reagan was so beloved by working-class Americans that a new demographic had to be created in his name—”Reagan Democrats.” Still, leftists couldn’t overcome their counterfactual stereotypes and continued to denounce Reagan as the champion of “the rich.” Liberal cartoonist Jules Feiffer said Reagan was “making the world safe for white, male, heterosexual millionaires.” 4
Republicans may resent the fact that unions give so much money to Democrats, but they don’t hate the worker. Who would be more likely to have a beer with a trucker: Tom DeLay or Barbara Boxer? Democrats actually hate working-class people.
The preposterous conceit that Democrats are the Party of the People and Republicans the Party of the Powerful has been repeated so often that by
Thus, for example, during the battle over George Bush’s proposed tax cut, billionaire music mogul David Geffen loudly bragged, “Speaking for myself, I don’t need a tax cut.” He loved paying taxes, he said, because it’s “a privilege to be an American citizen.” 2 This is pure braggadocio, intended to convey the information that Geffen has more money than God. “I want to pay more taxes” is a way of saying that, no matter how much the government takes, they will still have enough money to keep drinking Dom Perignon and making out in the hot tub.
Liberals obsess over the environment for the same reason they love crowing about how much they love to pay taxes: It is a way of separating themselves from the coupon-clippers. The environment is only the left’s most transparent expression of their contempt for the middle class.
Instead of “helping the poor” by cutting checks to the IRS from their unfathomable fortunes, it would be nice if liberals would just stop blocking ordinary people from using the public beaches. In early 2002, David Geffen, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg, and about one hundred other Malibu Marie Antoinettes erected chain-link fences to keep hoi polloi off the public beaches adjacent to their beachfront estates. The California Coastal Commission was forced to intervene to demand that the Hollywood left stop blocking access to the beach. Steve Hoye, former head of the Malibu Democratic Club, expressed shock at the arrogance of what he called “some of the best, most liberal people in Malibu.” 3
Liberals use the environment as a battering ram against the acquisitive middle class bumping up against the prerogatives of the fabulously wealthy. While California was experiencing rolling brownouts a few years ago, liberals steadfastly objected to building more power plants on the grounds that it would ruin the aesthetic of their hot tub lifestyles. Liberals want to prevent drilling in mudflats in Alaska, a place they would never visit, because they already have their Jacuzzis and can afford the electricity bills. Meanwhile working people need energy and could use the jobs. One cultural suggestion the Not-on-My-Beach movement might take from their beloved France is nuclear power. That would solve the alleged “greenhouse effect” immediately. But despite its acceptance by our lily-livered French friends, the left doesn’t like nuclear power, either.
Nothing would make liberal environmentalists so happy as an entire country that looked like the Hamptons: beautiful rich people living in solar-powered homes staffed with a phalanx of obedient servants who can’t afford SUVs. Liberals believe their fabulous wealth is a product of their unique brilliance, and the rest of us should live like aboriginals to preserve the view.
Republicans are simultaneously portrayed as the swine in third class and “the rich” (which, on the basis of Democrat tax proposals, evidently means “any guy with an alarm clock”). But for the incessant mind-numbing repetition of liberal propaganda, people would recognize this as a blinding contradiction. In fact—and contrary to another liberal myth—conservatives are aggressively anti-elitist. Reagan was so beloved by working-class Americans that a new demographic had to be created in his name—”Reagan Democrats.” Still, leftists couldn’t overcome their counterfactual stereotypes and continued to denounce Reagan as the champion of “the rich.” Liberal cartoonist Jules Feiffer said Reagan was “making the world safe for white, male, heterosexual millionaires.” 4
Republicans may resent the fact that unions give so much money to Democrats, but they don’t hate the worker. Who would be more likely to have a beer with a trucker: Tom DeLay or Barbara Boxer? Democrats actually hate working-class people.
The preposterous conceit that Democrats are the Party of the People and Republicans the Party of the Powerful has been repeated so often that by
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