ABSTRACT
In the contentions between left and right or between liberalism and conservatism, there is a quarrel about what constitutes progress. Rational debate would acknowledge the fairness of a graduated scale of taxation, while negotiating differences about what constitutes a reasonable or dangerous level. Highly graduated taxation realizes most completely the supreme danger of democracy, creating a state of things in which one class imposes on another burdens which it is not asked to share, and impels the State into vast schemes of extravagance, under the belief that the whole cost will be thrown upon others. There are of course circumstances when radical change may be necessary, but a functioning democracy should minimize the circumstances. Radicals on the right don't simply oppose the changes proposed by the administration, they also want to undo progressive changes made by previous administrations. In an op-ed, Peter Wehner, who had served in three Republican administrations, takes to task the radicals in his own party.
