"Redistribution Of Wealth" Is Not The Issue

Conservatives often focus on the wrong questions, and this poll, which plays into the caricature of "tax-and-spend" liberalism and the specter of government taking money from hard-working people and giving it to people who are less deserving, is a prime example. Ask people about the direction that progressives actually embrace as opposed to the stereotype presented by conservatives, and they will side with progressives. For example, a February 2008 Associated Press/Ipsos poll found that 70 percent of respondents thought that "increasing spending on domestic programs like health care, education, and housing" would help fix the country's economic problems. A January 2008 Fortune Magazine poll found that 67 percent would support "increasing government spending on things like public-works projects to help create jobs." Bush administration economic policies, if anything, have fostered a redistribution of wealth upward, creating an unprecedented economic gap between the very wealthy and the rest of the country. Progressives believe this is wrong, and most of the country agrees.