The party of the wealthy turns out to be (drumroll, please) the Democrats

The Democrats say Republicans are the party of the rich, and the party of the rednecks. Which means, apparently, that the ultimate Republican is a NASCAR fan with a Mercedes.

Nevertheless, there’s a fascinating article in the Weekly Standard that clearly demonstrates that, in reality, the Democrats are the part of the wealthy. Overwhelmingly so.

rich democrat zip codes

The Democrats have created two conflicting memes for Republicans. One is that it’s the party of the rich. The other is that it’s the party of the rednecks. Which means, apparently, that the ultimate Republican is a NASCAR fan with a Mercedes.

Nevertheless, there’s a fascinating article in the Weekly Standard that clearly demonstrates that, in reality, the Democrats are the part of the wealthy. Overwhelmingly so.

National Review’s The Corner breaks down the details:

That Democrats are the party of the oligarchy gets more, not less, obvious when you move beyond Wall Street. The cliché that Republicans are the rich people’s party makes a certain amount of common sense if you are just looking around your Middle American suburb. You will notice that the man making $200,000 a year is marginally more likely to vote Republican than his neighbor making $50,000. But in suburbia, the word “rich” is really a kind of slang, meaning “slightly better off.” Johnson isn’t talking about those people. He is talking about people who are rich-with-a-capital-R, the ones who can convert wealth into political power, the ones whose annual income is measured in millions, or tens of millions. Again, how do they vote, and who is their party?



We can formulate a guess by looking at the 20 ZIP codes that pour the most money into the political system. (See the chart on page 23.) This list coincides fairly well with any list of the 20 richest neighborhoods in the United States. All but one of those 20 neighborhoods give the majority of their money to Democrats. (The exception is McLean, Virginia, which gives 48 percent to Democrats.) Most of them give the overwhelming majority of their money to Democrats. For example, none of the 7 Manhattan neighborhoods listed—where we can assume Johnson’s oligarchs live—gives less than 71 percent of its money to Democrats.

That presents a challenge to the usual way of looking at things, doesn’t it? Republicans have been paying a high price in both public opinion and political coherence to defend the prerogatives of a class that despises them. It was to cosset just these people with tax cuts that George W. Bush destroyed the balanced budget. It would seem that Republicans are either an exceptionally idealistic political party (pursuing their ideology to the point of self-destruction) or an exceptionally foolish one (convinced that anyone with a great big pile of money is their friend). There may be another explanation. To paraphrase something Clinton aide David Dreyer said many years ago, Republicans have done Lord Acton one better—they’ve been corrupted by power they don’t even have.

They left out, “…to achieve goals they don’t even want.”

Source: National Review’s The Corner

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