Weigel has predicated a lot on the conditional statement: “If you look at it right, then you’ll see serious policy.” But we don’t have any evidence for the antecedent, that the public or the media *will* “look at it right.” More to the point, I don’t agree that the waivers or tax loopholes are among the most important problems facing this or the next president. Effective tax rates are much too low on the rich, but the best solution isn’t better income tax laws, it’s a progressive consumption tax, which is not on the table.
The policy issues under discussion are partly unsubstantive because they’re subject to deep red meat divisions. They won’t be resolved; they’re designed to be perpetual. The stuff I want to talk about is stuff that a whole host of people from both sides could agree on, if they were allowed to spend the election talking about it. Elections are about drawing distinctions and offering a choice, but they’re also about parsing the electorate into roughly equal demographic slices. Policy is about taking the broad overlapping consensus and the best evidence and acting on that.
Over the next two years, there will be very little movement on the things we argue about during this election season. During the same time span, there will be a great deal of movement on the things we ignore this election season. That suggests irrelevance.
Second Opinions