Share the Wealth

“I believe that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It's led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery…We are all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to factory workers, we all have a stake in each other's success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers.” --Barack Obama, New York, NY, September 17, 2007

There are a lot of rich, white intellectuals who avidly support Barack Obama. I have to think that this is primarily because Obama embodies idealism. He fancies himself a wordsmith, and he’s morally and ideologically relativistic enough to make room for a lot of people with varying personal beliefs. Rich white intellectuals love this. Obama has a way of speaking so that, if you’re trying to hear yourself in his words, it is very easy to do that. But, if you like your politician’s statements to actually be logical, black or white expressions of belief, you’re out of luck.

One thing about this almost unified backing of Obama among rich white intellectuals is that Obama is, in a lot of ways, a socialist. One part of his economic plan includes raising taxes on the upper class and giving tax credits to the middle class (the link is somewhat vague, but I’ve heard him expound on this idea in television interviews). This is a fine idea, and actually one that I don’t totally disagree with. However, how are all of the idealistic liberals going to start behaving when it’s their money being redistributed through the system and put into the pockets of the working class? I wonder how gracious they’ll be to Obama then. And I have to wonder…do they even get it?