The Nattering Nabob

The Democrats should do more to explain their economic positions to people. The Republicans' "Supply-side" and "trickle-down" have become common lingo, while the Democrats have done little to explain that wealth trickles UP, not down, and that the DEMAND side drives the economy much more than the supply side.

Anywho, Paul Krugman helps to fill that hole in the Times today:

"A new Bush campaign ad pushes the theme of an "ownership society," and concludes with President Bush declaring, "I understand if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of America."

Call me naïve, but I thought all Americans have a vital stake in the nation's future, regardless of how much property they own. (Should we go back to the days when states, arguing that only men of sufficient substance could be trusted, imposed property qualifications for voting?) Even if Mr. Bush is talking only about the economic future, don't workers have as much stake as property owners in the economy's success?

But there's a political imperative behind the "ownership society" theme: the need to provide pseudopopulist cover to policies that are, in reality, highly elitist."