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But at a more fundamental level, his remarks signaled a new, more unapologetic mode of big “D” Democratic thinking. Gone are the days where Bill Clinton was declaring the era of Big Government to be over. Forgotten are the moments when Barack Obama was touting his fiscal prudence. In its place was a president leaning into the very tax-and-spend charges that Republicans have thrown at him and his party for decades. Beside him was a massive swath of the Democratic coalition.
“The notion of using tax and spend as a political cudgel is really old-fashioned,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left group Third Way. “I don’t think at this moment in the middle of a pandemic and the middle of a racial crisis and economic crisis, there’s a lot of concern about taxing rich people.”
Bennett said what is resonating with Americans right now is the notion that the wealthy are getting wealthier. “I don’t think there’s a lot of fire there on the anti-tax side,” Bennett said.
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