Pierced

President Obama, Willard told his crowd, is practicing "the bitter politics of envy." He warned them not to be seduced by the president's "resentment of success." It was a moment of almost transcendental meanness and fakery. Willard was explaining to his audience that he was just like them, and that they were the keepers of America's promise, and that they would continue to be —at least until, for his own profit and that of his wealthy investors, Willard wrecked their companies, stole their retirement, and shipped their jobs to China, never to return. They were all in it together, Willard assured them.

It is an altogether appalling spiel. The old, iron millionnaires knew how to talk to the proles. They built libraries while they busted the unions. They planted trees and developed parkland while they bought the legislatures and sublet the courts. And out of all of that we got cars and planes and television sets and an ambitious middle class that demanded political power and succeeded in wresting it away. Now, we have a class of plutocrats who create nothing, but who move wealth around, and they are demanding a return to the days of unaccountable corporate royalism.

from here