tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7085195159661027971.post1770164673756249094..comments2024-03-15T16:14:36.387-04:00Comments on Just the social facts, ma'am: Towards a general theory of crankificationDavid Weakliemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336229317604663975noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7085195159661027971.post-31837556875073133782015-10-03T11:34:39.211-04:002015-10-03T11:34:39.211-04:00I agree. In effect, "you guys keep talking a...I agree. In effect, "you guys keep talking about inequality--let's see if you're willing to pay to do something about it." David Weakliemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02336229317604663975noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7085195159661027971.post-70771339311276737072015-10-01T10:01:09.317-04:002015-10-01T10:01:09.317-04:00David:
I suspect that Douthat, like Michael Baron...David:<br /><br />I suspect that Douthat, like Michael Barone and Charles Murray and others, is conflicted between his support for rich, job-creating conservatives and rich, rent-seeking liberals. Barone and Murray resolved this by pretty much not looking at rich conservatives and instead focusing on the liberal elite. They also didn't talk much about tax rates so they didn't have to address the contradiction between their anti-rich-liberal attitudes and conservative anti-tax-the-rich attitudes. Douthat seems to have resolved the cognitive dissonance another way, by recognizing that the rich tend to be conservative and instead identifying the upper middle class as the locus of rent-seeking liberalism. From a statistical and demographic point of view, I don't think this makes sense either, but I can see where he's coming from.Andrew Gelmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02715992780769751789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7085195159661027971.post-35003455689499707312015-09-26T20:34:30.250-04:002015-09-26T20:34:30.250-04:00On your second point, that's definitely a fact...On your second point, that's definitely a factor, but the tendency to bid for the hard core seems unusually strong this time. Of course, it's hard to systematically compare it with other campaigns, which is why I talked about Douthat--he's not running for anything, and he wants to help the working and middle classes, but he still can't bring himself to say that maybe taxes on the rich could be increased a little.David Weakliemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02336229317604663975noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7085195159661027971.post-83527573536007767122015-09-22T14:31:56.711-04:002015-09-22T14:31:56.711-04:001. I don't know Douthat but my vague impressi...1. I don't know Douthat but my vague impression would be that he has some vague idea that "Thomas Piketty’s petits rentiers (the upper middle class, that is)" are generally comfortable liberals. I have to admit, though, I was pretty stunned to see him explicitly say he wants to cut taxes on the "super rich." I mean, sure, that's what a lot of suggested policies would do, but I didn't think that a columnist would go around saying it.<br /><br />2. Regarding the more general point about candidates having extreme positions: I wonder if part of the story is that everyone knows that the primaries are the time for appealing to the hard core, and there's the expectation that candidates will moderate their policies in the general election campaign. And then, once a candidate gets elected president, there are a bunch more hurdles in front of him or her before any policy gets passed. So maybe these extreme positions are understood in some sense as being markers being laid down, policy aspirations rather than realistic goals.Andrew Gelmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02715992780769751789noreply@blogger.com