Ian replied:
The problem is that, on some level, many of the people voting for tax breaks for the rich don't actually mind if it doesn't improve the economy, if a high tide doesn't float all boats, if they will never be rich enough to benefit from the tax breaks. They may believe these things, but if you prove them wrong, they'll still vote in favor of the tax breaks. Because, on an ideological level, they believe that the wealthy DESERVE lots of money, and that the government taking it from them is vaguely tyrannical. They may not believe this in a wholly conscious way, but, at a gut level, it will always feel wrong to increase taxes on the wealthy, and they will look for truthy-sounding arguments for why it's good for the economy.
An underlying component to this gut feeling seems to be the belief that, in order for society to function, we NEED to have wealthy people. That the only reason we have all the good things we have is because of the actions of the rich; we wouldn't have affordable food chains, cool technological devices, or possibly even employment (i.e. "job creators" has become a synonym for "rich businessmen"). Yes, the rich fuck us over left and right, but, if they were less rich, we'd probably still be getting fucked over but we'd also not have any of the conveniences the rich take credit for.
If we want to combat that, we need to stop addressing the lies used to justify this system and start addressing the ideology behind it. We need to speak to what people's actual concerns are, and not just what they tell us their concerns are. We need to emphasize that most of the good things we have in society are due to collective effort by masses of normal people working together, and not the billionaires who slap their names on the product of that labor. We need to undermine the Great Men Of History narrative that tells people wealth and accomplishment are the same thing. Conservative rhetoric is largely a bunch of lies conservatives tell themselves, so you have to do a bit of digging to figure out why they do what they do because they won't tell you; they won't even admit it to themselves.
But, as I've said before: We need to stop assuming that, if we just correct some misinformation, everyone will agree with us.
Anonymous commented:
Part of what makes me so angry about this latest GOP tax scam is that I don't think we'll ever learn. We didn't learn when Reagan cut taxes, or when W. cut taxes. Never have corporate handouts ever accomplished anything, but we keep doing it, and it's just such a pointless self-defeating cycle of artificial austerity. How do we break this cycle and get people to realize that the GOP has been conning them on taxes for 40 years?