If you eat your tail, you only shrink. There’s a metaphor in here somewhere.

Dr. J. is a big fan of Pete ‘Pencilneck‘ DuPont. Indeed when Dr. J. was a yout’ just shy of voting age, he and Papa J. got into a huge row over who to support in the 1988 primary. Dr. J. supported Pete DuPont, the only one who understood and had a plan for the looming entitlement crisis such that Dr. J. wouldn’t be left with the tab for the Baby Boomers. Papa J. supported Jack Kemp because he had a helluva passing arm back in the day, and he was a touch more compassionate than Pete. Indeed, Dr. J. was called a libertarian by his old man for espousing support for Mr. DuPont.

But the primary reason today’s liberal Democratic coalition will fade is because the very policies it pushes sow the seeds of its own destruction. The coalition can survive over time only by allocating slices of our nation’s economic pie in a way that favors and placates its constituent members. But people, being human, will continually want larger slices of our economic resources, so continued success in placating those members, while at the same time adding the necessary new members, requires a continuing and ever-growing economy. A flat or shrinking economy will never generate the resources needed to feed the coalition. 

Yet the White House and congressional Democrats are working to stifle economic growth. From their views on taxes and redistribution, to their policies on energy and regulation, liberal Democrats are standing in the way of the strong economy their coalition needs. 

Instead of pushing policies that spur innovation and risk-taking, the left advances policies that discourage them. Instead of lower marginal tax rates and less complication in the federal tax code, we see higher rates and more complication. We see new taxes in ObamaCare and the partial expiration of the Bush cuts. California’s new tax on millionaires brings the state rate to more than 13%, and the combined federal and state rate to almost 52%. The high rates are discouraging at least some wealthy taxpayers from staying in or moving to the state. As federal rates increase, such economic discouragement will be found across the nation.

Dr. J.