Joe Scarborough Scours the ‘Evil Geniuses’ Redistributing Income to the Rich
24th December 2024
Last week, we caught Joe Scarborough sounding like Bernie Sanders as he banged his desk in frustration, inveighing against “billionaires” and wondering how the Democrats could possibly have missed the “layup” of beating the Republicans in November’s election, given the disparity in income between those billionaires and working-class Americans.
On today’s Morning Joe, Scarborough made it clear that he has signed on to the project of rebuilding the Democrats. He brought in two critics of capitalism: Kurt Andersen and Daniel Chandler. The former wrote Evil Geniuses, a book condemning conservatives who want to reduce taxation and regulation. The latter has written Free and Equal, a book recommending that the Democrats embrace the philosophy of John Rawls–which at its core calls for the redistribution of income.
Scarborough claimed to be a “proud capitalist” and then came the “But.” He added “But I am a proud capitalist with guardrails that capitalism used to have. And I understand, people don’t want to talk about income redistribution. I’m not a big fan of income redistribution. I’m especially not a big fan when the income is being moved from middle class Americans to billionaires.”
So if the middle class flock to Amazon for their shopping, is that a “redistribution” of income to Jeff Bezos? Or is that the middle class finding the best price? Scarborough thinks just like the Democrats, that letting people keep more of what they have earned is the same as welfare programs taking money from those who have earned it and giving it to those who have not.