“There’s a general anger at bigness—whether it’s big government, big business, banking—and a sense that the game is rigged in favor of people with connections and money. But that leads to two very different targets of blame, and two different sets of politics,” says New Yorker staff writer George Packer. As the 2016 election season begins, Packer joins fellow-staff writer Jill Lepore and host Dorothy Wickenden to talk about the rhetoric of inequality. They discuss the problematic symbolism of a Bush-Clinton race, Obamacare’s impact, and the political appeal, for conservatives, of inequality. “There’s a lot of racial politics behind the Republicans’ newfound fascination with economic inequality. It’s a way to talk about American divisiveness without talking about race,” Lepore says.
via The Political Scene: The Rhetoric of Inequality – The New Yorker.