Like many others, I found SusanG's diary on the alleged wealth-hatred of liberals unfortunate in many ways, including its insulting assumption that progressives and progressivism have no more profound critique of wealth than "money=bad" and its remarkable inability to clarify the issues by separating the subjects of wealth-generation, consumption, and philanthropy. No biggie, just a bad presentation of a complex subject, right?
Wrong. I think SusanG's diary is a preview of the way the Democrats will manage to lose the 2006 and 2008 elections, despite huge advantages.
The GOP strategy in the next election is pretty clear. All that bad anti-middle and -lower class policy (tax cuts, oil supply, bankruptcy laws, etc.) is threatening to come back to bite them in the ass. What to do? 1) Give the poor and middle class an alternative explanation for their financial woes: it's the damn immigrants!; 2) pretend to be working hard to level the playing field / building the wall for American workers (never mind the facts); 3) portray Dem policy as an additional hit (through higher taxes) on the family budget; 4) paint Dem candidates as big-spending trust-fund elites who are insensitive to the economic reality faced by middle America.
This program is already being rolled out. Maybe you've noticed that the headlines for Lou Dobbs column on CNN.com read more like Eugene Debs: "Dobbs: Bush, Congress tell working folk to go to hell"; "Dobbs: President and Senate allied with 'corporate supremacists'"; etc. Omigod, did he get re-educated? Nope, he's just getting out in front of the coming wave of class anger that is the predictable result of Republican class warfare. You can bet that when it comes time to vote, he'll mention Pelosi's zillion dollar pantsuits, Feinstein's huge SF mansion, etc., and contrast it with the carefully-crafted image of "down-home" GOoPers in the Bush mold. Sadly, people will vote for the guy who looks like Joe Sixpack even if he is the owner of Coors Brewing Co.
So, how does SusanG's post fit in? Well, it seems to ask Kossacks to get comfortable with the wealth of party and movement leaders. I don't really care all that much how much these folks make, but it is a huge mistake to let the public face of the party be limousine liberals. It is a loser politically, and it will only get worse as financial health of the middle class gets worse. It is also a loser morally, as the embrace of wealth as the movement's salvation smacks of DLC-ism, even if that isn't what SusanG had in mind. Third, the post manages--by dint of its poor framing--to raise the issue of class in the most divisive way possible, by shoving an ultimatum ("love the rich") down the throats of folks who have a more complicated view and who thought they had a place in the wished-for Dem majority. This turns our movement's biggest strength into a huge liability, while the race-baiting, wall-building, war-starting GOP is laying the groundwork to scoop all the disgruntled blue collars into its rancid coalition.