Given the choice between indulging in anti-corporate demagoguery or cutting bloated government bureaucracies, Oregon voters have chosen to go the California route. Presumably they looked at Sacramento, saw how well everything is going, and say “yup, that’s exactly what we want.” Just look how proud they are of their cheap, resentful demonization:
Oregon voters bucked decades of anti-tax and anti-Salem sentiment Tuesday, raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to prevent further erosion of public schools and other state services… Measure 66 raises taxes on households with taxable income above $250,000, and Measure 67 sets higher minimum taxes on corporations and increases the tax rate on upper-level profits. The results triggered waves of relief from educators and legislative leaders, who were facing an estimated $727 million shortfall in the current two-year budget if the measures failed…
Tuesday’s strong support also validated a strategy by Democratic lawmakers to single out the rich and corporations for targeted tax increases. Campaign ads by supporters highlighted banks and credit card companies and showed images of well-dressed people stepping off private jets… “They did a great job of pounding, ‘It’s only $10,’” said Bob Tiernan, chairman of the state Republican Party. “We got swamped by the union money.”
Washington state Democrats are already planning to model their tax-increase campaign on the Oregon strategy. I’m honestly surprised it took them this long to come to a consensus. Obama has spent the last few months “blasting banks,” though there’s no word yet on whether he’s back to threatening law-abiding bankers with pitchfork-wielding mobs.
I’m not sure if they had any ads about “fat cat bankers” – the eloquent phrase so beloved by our modern-day Pericles – but they did have eyeroll inducing stills of “rich people” holding up glasses of champagne in front of their ostensibly private pool tables. It’s like what a high school student would create if they were tasked with caricaturing “the wealthy,” which would be funny minus the part where the campaign is moving entire regions of the country:
I for one am glad that Obama told the GOP to stop scaring Americans with the prospect of Democratic wealth confiscation. Much better to go with 1980′s stock photography of jet-setting bankers, champagne-swilling philanderers, and big-haired trophy wives. That’s the path toward reasoned public deliberation.
References and related after the jump…
References:
* Oregon voters pass tax increasing measures by big margin [Oregon Live]
* CA Dems: Instead Of Cutting Costs, We’re Going To Increase Taxes And Destroy CA’s Oil Industry [MR]
* Wash. Dems cheer Ore. tax vote; preview of what’s next here? [Seattle PI]
* Obama Blasts Banks for Opposing Financial Overhaul [FOX]
* Obama To Bankers He’s Been Scapegoating: I’m “The Only Thing Between You And The Pitchforks” [MR]
* On The Brink – Vote YES on Measures 66 and 67 [YouTube]
* Obama warns GOP: Stop trying to frighten Americans about my policies [Hot Air]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* American Politics
* Democratic Politics
* Economy
