As you may know, we're running a campaign at TaxTheRich2012.org to have someone on the California primary ballot, Mike Strimling for Senate, to stand clearly for return to progressive taxation.
We haven't gotten a whole lot of response yet - certainly not from the progressive community. We'd hope that you'd be facebooking and twittering us, if not contributing, to help get the word out. The hits to our site have been building, but only into the hundreds or thousands.
But we did get an interesting email yesterday. Perhaps you'd like to read it:
From: Matthew Kremer To: ms@taxtherich2012.org Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 6:22 PM Subject: For sure?
Wow. You're really stupid. What do you do when you run out of other peoples' money?
Your little manifesto seems to call for eradication of the constitution. Maybe you'd be happier in Havana. Or Venezuela.
How much in taxes do the lower 70% pay? How much do the upper 5% pay? If you can't answer that, you're even dumber than you look.
Michael Moore is the "1%". I'm not. You're not and never will be bcz you're an idiot. Moore doesn't pay a dime more in tax than the law requires. Neither does Obama, Biden & whatever lib Hollywood asshole you want to name.
You are and forever will be a loser.
Matt Kremer
Gosh. It's a nice blast from the past to be invited to go to Cuba. And this apparently from an esteemed member of the California Bar - his website advertises that he is "a well-experienced divorce lawyer in San Diego" (unless someone is using his email account to send missives from FoxNews).
And to be invited to emigrate to Cuba just for our suggesting that we return to the taxation system that America had during the childhood and young adulthood of Mr. Kremer - when we believe that America was considered to be anti-communist but still imposed some taxes on the rich. If the U.S. was anti-communist then, what is it now? An oligarchy? a kleptocracy? a plutocracy? a feudal state of lords and serfs?
Last we heard this is a democracy. In a democracy, you'd think the votes and preferences of the bottom 95% should eventually matter. That's our theory. Although Mr. Kremer indicates he is not part of the 1%, he seems to have a problem with their paying taxes at historical rates and wants them to continue to get huge tax cuts to preserve their massive wealth. Although FoxNews' toadies to the ultra-rich may point out, continually, that the top 1% pay considerable taxes, it is not proportionate to their wealth. The top 1% owns 40% of the assets of the country, and own more than the bottom 90% combined.
Come see us at TaxTheRich2012.org - If Mr. Kremer suggests we move to Cuba or Venezuela (we suppose that suggesting that we move to every other industrialized democracy on earth, where taxes are more progressive than in the US, was not sufficiently dramatic for him) - we must be doing something right.
By the way, we have an automatic reply that thanks people for writing to us. Mr. Kremer's email to our automatic reply is just as enlightening. Perhaps he should look into who is using his email system, if this was not him:
From: Matthew Kremer To: ms@taxtherich2012.org Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 6:24 PM Subject: Re: Your mail to ms@taxtherich2012.org
Can't wait. Asshole.
On Apr 16, 2012, at 6:25 PM, "ms@taxtherich2012.org" wrote:
> Thank you for your interest and your email. We will respond at our earliest convenience.