Liberal Myths Versus Democratic Realities

This campaign season, President Barack Obama has run across the country – often on the taxpayer’s dime – to rail against the privileged station of the wealthy. It is Obama and the Democrats who will cut down on the power of the elite and restore the egalitarian ideals of the country’s founding. This is why tax hikes on the wealthy are needed, and why the GOP's efforts to cut the corporate tax rate must be opposed.

Or so the claims go. In reality, the gap between what Obama and the Democrats say on the stump and what they do in office is greater than what separates the Pittsburgh Steelers from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Like ancient civilizations, both sides in our political debate have mythologies that explain who they are, where they came from, and what the other side is all about. The liberal myth centers on the concept of egalitarianism: The Democratic party is of the people, and the Republican party is of special interests.

This has been an enduring element of the Democratic catechism for centuries. In his famous “Cross of Gold” speech, William Jennings Bryan said, “The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it.” In his 1948 Democratic nomination address, for instance, Harry Truman assailed the Republicans as “the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be.” This rhetoric sounds familiar to our modern ears, as Democrats regularly repeat these nostrums on the stump.

More