David Brewster
Ross Douthat puts his finger on the critical issue in Bernie’s programs: high tax increases on the middle class. The media rarely mention this, but it is political dynamite for the delicate Democratic coalition of donor-class, social liberals, ethnics, and the middle class. Douthat foresees a better-than-Bernie candidate taking up this daring leftism, at which point the tax issue might explode the coalition or the left will steal a line from the supply-siders: deficits don’t matter or they touch off such a boom as to be self-correcting.
The next generation has ambitious ideas to stamp a thorough left-wing party. Can it build one?
NYTIMES.COM|BY ROSS DOUTHAT