Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Republicans fight discrimination

Even Republicans are turning politically-correct these days,... in their own way, of course. At least, they've started to battle against discrimination.

From Indecision Forever:
Fresh off a successful campaign for a referendum that eliminated civil unions for straight and gay couples alike, the North Carolina Republican party convened to draft a special message for the most put-upon segment of the Tar Heel state.

The It Gets Better message is right there in the party's platform, adopted over the weekend…
Government should treat all citizens impartially, without regard to wealth, race, ethnicity, disability, religion, sex, political affiliation or national origin. We oppose all forms of invidious discrimination. Sexual orientation is not an appropriate category.

Congratulations, wealthy people. How long must you wait to throw off the shackles of North Carolina's mildly progressive state income tax? Not long! How long must you wait for an education funding formula that funnels funds to affluent districts? Since that's the way education money is already allocated — Not long!

Yes, Republicans are opposed to discrimination against wealthy people. Gays, not so much. As the article notes, there's still a question about wealthy gay people.

Please note that this applies to wealthy corporations, too, since we all know that corporations are just people, too. And wealthy corporations face about as much discrimination as wealthy flesh-and-blood people, I'm sure.

Poor things. Don't you feel sorry for what the rich must go through, how they must suffer? And only the Republicans - and most of the Democrats - looking out for them.

2 comments:

Jim Harris said...

Protecting the wealthy, that's the most absurd stance yet. The wealthy already get more welfare than the poor. Everyone wants to be wealthy, so how can there be discrimination? Because we want them to pay the same tax rates as the middle class?

Bill Garthright said...

Exactly. This is all about attacking progressive income tax rates.

Of course, the ironic thing is that the rich actually pay a lower tax rate than the middle class. But that's largely because of the low tax rate on capital gains and dividends.

And that wouldn't apply under this platform, since it's not technically discriminatory. (It's just that rich people get far more of their money from such sources, rather than earned income.)

So this is just a way to cut the taxes on the wealthy even further.