I have said that Kovacks is one of a small number of Republicans who does not make me want to vomit. He does make me queasy though. Here is the thing, there is nothing “moderate” about the economic theories that inform Kovacks’ choice of parties. He is a Republican.
Republicans – even so-called moderate Republicans – have bought into an economic theory that is not only failed nonsense, but is killing his country. Republicans, like otherwise sane sounding Tom Kovacks, believe that wealth is by its very nature, morally and economically virtuous.
Harold Meyerson explained it all very well back in 2004:
“(the Bush) administration has trusted more to pure theory than virtually any modern president’s. The Iraq war is a triumph of ideology over the facts on the ground (it’s certainly not a triumph of anything else). And, as it’s currently shaping up, Bush’s second term looks to be even more theory-driven than his first.
Theory certainly is driving the administration’s tax policies. In his first term, Bush took an ax to the taxes on dividends and mega-estates. In his second term, according to a story by The Post’s Jonathan Weisman and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, the president is looking at eliminating taxes on dividends and capital gains and creating generous tax shelters for all investment income. The theory here is that investment, not labor, is the real creator of wealth — so the taxes on investment income will be scrapped, while those on wages will keep rolling along.
And in the name of this theory, Bush seems willing to sacrifice much of the social compact that made America, in the second half of the 20th century, the first majority middle-class nation in human history.
While Republicans politicians like Christine O’Donnell, and Sarah “Stand with our North Korea allies” Palin work to turn Modern Republicanism into a wacky reality TV sideshow that is too easily laughed off, the core of modern Republicanism is no laughing matter.
At every level of government so-called “moderate” and sane looking Republicans like Tom Kovacks need to be rebuked by voters so that this insidious and catastrophic economic theory of using the levers of government to enrich the rich can be put to death in our lifetimes.