Obama is running from Obamacare to his zone of strength and core value: class warfare.
Democrats are geniuses at playing on group identity. When I ask friends what principles lead them to vote Democrat, it is a hard question for them. After a baffled pause, I often hear this: “Republicans are the party of the rich.” It is said as if that is all that needs to be said: not like me, exploiting people, bad for the country. Not my party.
As the liberal Howard Dean says, many Republicans “have never made an honest living in their lives.”
Democrats have crushed Republicans for years by defining lower taxes as catering to the rich. Let your opponent define you, and you are finished. In one blow they demonize us as privileged, selfish and out of touch, and avoid debate on the key choice facing the country: the scope of government. Do we want an all-encompassing bureaucratic Nanny state sucking dry a quarter of our economy? Or do we want to shrink the government down to constitutional limits? It takes lower taxes and a balanced budget to allow room for individual liberty and a vibrant economy. Once we are labeled the Party of the Rich, our values and our agenda are off the table.
It is one big fat lie. Republicans are the party of the working and middle class. We want lower taxes for everyone’s prosperity and freedom. The Tea Party makes this clear; the establishment does not.
We have the numbers. There’s no fudging here: we know the numbers of rich people and how they vote. We know the numbers of rich Democrat and Republican contributors and politicians.
It is the Democrats who are the party of the rich. They are also the party of the poor. Republicans are the party of the middle.