


Ask almost any Republican politician, from lobster-roll-eating Northeastern RINOs to leather-skinned Westerners with calluses on their trigger fingers, to explain why high taxes are bad, and they'll do a pretty good job of selling it.


Then, they'll rush to safer territory: all of the wonderful things government does. Government is just the word we use for all the things we do together. So every time you cut a check to the IRS, an angel gets its wings.


Barack Obama has tried to explain that "spreading the wealth around" is noble. That taxation is a vital application of the biblical requirement to be our "brother's keeper" that the Bible doesn't require.

George Lakoff, a linguistic consultant to Democrats, has tried a different tack. He says that "taxes are your dues - you pay your dues to be an American."


Some ideas won't die, however. So there was Faiz Shakir, editor in chief of ThinkProgress.org, expanding on this idea on C-SPAN.







The "exclusive entity" analogy actually supports not higher and more progressive income taxes, but a flat tax. Everyone has the same share of skin in the game.

In fairness, Republicans successfully sell their anti-tax message not because they have better orators but because taxpayers don't feel they're getting a lot of value for their dollars, and most suspect they could feel the same "awe and respect" for half the price.

Jonah Goldberg's column is distributed by Tribune Media. He is editor at large for National Review Online.