By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Any time you hear the word purity too often in a conversation, the sound of jackboots can’t be far behind.
– Anthony Bourdain
(foodie and travelista, following a healthful massage and mud bath in Iceland)
Our president has suggested that the proposed initiative to tax the rich be named after one of theirs, one of the few who can equal Bill Gates in wealth and influence: third-richest man in the world, Warren Buffett. Years ago, Buffett was the billionaire who proposed that he should pay, on average, at least as much tax as his secretary, rather than less. His was an early voice for liberalizing both the tax structure and its current rate in an effort to rebalance the economy.
When FDR proposed taking business-gone-rogue to the woodshed, his contemporaries accused him of selling out his class. Not so for Buffet, whose modest lifestyle and habits did not change over the years to reflect his skyrocketing wealth. Buffett made an ethical decision, determined not to be swept away by the power and privilege that came along with profit. He has been a frontrunner for protecting mainstream America by promoting an equal share in both responsibility and benefit, rather than the top-down protections for both profit and profiteers that have become government policy over the last decades.
If you want a crystal clear example of how skewed these laws have become, please take a moment to watch Stephen Colbert create an anonymous political entity, an addition to his super PAC, here. I consider this to be absolutely brilliant political television: his comments punch a hole the size of Texas in the credibility of this kind of organization, which is based on the one designed and run by Karl Rove. Colbert’s über-conservative shtick gives him latitude that Jon Stewart can’t begin to touch with straight satire.
Not that I think Jon’s a slouch, of course, as his numerous Emmies attest. The night before, Stewart called bullshit on Bill O’Reilly’s contention that if taxes get any worse, he might have to give up his multimillion-dollar job as overlord of FOX News nightly talk shows. Nose to nose, their conversation (off air and on web) was described as “feisty.” Neither Stewart nor Colbert have any problem crossing the sensibilities of their own viewer-base, so we can rightfully accuse both of being “politically incorrect,” as are Mike Moore, Bill Maher and others who give the nation an alternate version of reality, the non-approved version.