Well, Well...Income Inequality Worse In Dem Districts

My fake shocked face is being overworked lately.

According to census data crunched by Atlantic Cities, Bachmann’s district has the lowest level of income inequality in the country. Meanwhile, inequality is highest in the New York City district of Representative Jerry Nadler, a liberal Democrat. Those extremes reflect a broader partisan divide: Across the country, inequality is lower in Republican districts than in Democratic ones.

That’s not surprising, given that high levels of wealth and poverty — and thus inequality — tend to be concentrated in cities, which are dominated by Democrats. But it does call into question the political wisdom of the Democratic Party’s effort to make income inequality the centerpiece of its national economic agenda.

That last part is the key. The Democrats have largely gotten a free pass on the fact that they are run by very wealthy people. And they represent very wealthy people. And the people they get to do their bidding from Hollywood are very wealthy.

But rich white Republicans or something.

They are so good at this ruse that during the 2012 Democratic National Convention they kept portraying Mitt Romney as a rich, white, out of touch Republican from Massachusetts while trotting out John Kerry and Caroline Kennedy on stage.

Timid, don’t-rock-the-boat Republicans have let them get away with this for far too long.

There is no real hope of shifting perceptions if we continually let the economically destructive Kabuki Pander Theater (think: Paycheck Fairness Act) perform unchallenged. The press certainly isn’t going to question the disconnect. We will have to keep working on that ourselves all the while working on getting people elected who can do it as well.