You Don't Know What's Good for You; I Do
If you haven't seen it already, watch the video of Obama talking to "Joe the Plumber" on an Ohio rope line (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFC9jv9jfoA). It is one of the best real life examples of what many conservatives find distasteful about liberalism...the smug condescension that comes with an implicit liberal belief that we don't know what's good for us, but our liberal breathern do. Just trust the government and all will be well. If there was a bubble over Obama's head. it would say something like the following..."Joe, hold that thought while I explain this dandy program. Actually, forget that thought altogether."
Chuck -
Long time reader, first time commenter. While I know that government presence, taxation, and spending are real issues at the heart of the liberal/conservative debate, I think that you are unfairly misreading this clip. I don't think that you can conflate the mere fact that Obama supports progressive taxation with "smug condescension." Putting aside the thought that Joe appears to be a bit of a set up, as there is a question if he is really a plumber (http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS09/810160418) and owes some amount in back taxes (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/us/politics/17joe.html?hp), Joe asks two straightforward questions and I think that he gets a engaged, straight forward answer from Obama outlining the ways that he will be monetarily affected, both giving and taking, by the Obama tax plan. Obama doesn't hint at the fact that he knows what is good for Joe better than Joe does, unless, as I said, the simple fact that he supports progressive tax necessarily means that the government (and thus Obama, as a presidential nominee) believes this about all people being taxed. I think that this post, uncharacteristic of your other posts on this blog, is launching a partisan attack on Obama where your beef really lies with the fundamental differences between liberal and conservative economic models and governance.
Obama does interrupt Joe at one point, but Obama is in the middle of addressing why Joe's first question ("will he pay more taxes") is more complicated than a simple calculation of whether he is making more than $250K and thus bumps into the higher tax bracket. I think that Obama has the right (and indeed was right) to finish his answer, and then he turns to Joe and lets him probe further. I see here a very healthy exchange in which Obama acknowledges that people will disagree with the idea of "spreading the wealth around," but in no way does any part of this conversation imply that Obama is telling Joe to "forget [his] though altogether." I think that it is commendable that Obama has the political guts to be up front with Joe about his economic ethos and not to stand down from one of his core beliefs that the income discrepancy has gotten wildly out of hand in this country, even when faced with a legitimate worry and difference of opinion from a voter on the campaign trail.
I would like to save the core debate of trickle down vs. bottom up growth models (one which I can only hope to have the economic chops to hang with this crew) for another time, but until then, I am sticking with my homie Holmes: I like paying taxes; with them I buy society.
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