Frum to conservatives — own up to income inequality

Of course, Frum himself won’t own up to the solution

On page 3 of his in-depth take on “The Vanishing Republican Voter,” Bruce Frum says today’s GOP needs to face facts:

The trend to inequality is real, it is large and it is transforming American society and the American electoral map. Yet the conservative response to this trend verges somewhere between the obsolete and the irrelevant.

Conservatives need to stop denying reality. The stagnation of the incomes of middle-class Americans is a fact. And only by acknowledging facts can we respond effectively to the genuine difficulties of voters in the middle. We keep offering them cuts in their federal personal income taxes — even though two-thirds of Americans pay more in payroll taxes than in income taxes, and even though a majority of Americans now describe their federal income tax burden as reasonable.

Frum points out it IS about healthcare costs, above all.

Of course, he stops there without offering a solution.

Psst, Bruce? It’s called national healthcare.

At the same time, he disagrees with liberal elites (they do exist) and their neolib economic analysis flunkies (Brad DeLong, that’s you; somebody tell this to Orange County semi-elite Kevin Drum) that illegal immigration does drive down wages.

And, snark aside, he notes that smart states (seven out of top 10) swing blue, while dumb states swing red (nine out of bottom 10).