David Leonhardt: Radicals for income inequality

Also: The Ralph Northam fiasco, and Boston’s latest victory View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Monday, February 4, 2019 [NYTimes.com/David-Leonhardt »]( [Op-Ed Columnist] Op-Ed Columnist I keep hearing that the Democratic presidential candidates are suggesting “radical” economic ideas. It’s not true. The candidates are not seeking radical change with their main proposals — like Elizabeth Warren’s tax on wealth or Kamala Harris’s big anti-poverty tax plan. They are instead trying to undo some of the radical increases in economic inequality over the past 40 years. [My column today makes the full version of this case]( and explains why keeping the version of the United States that we have long known — optimistic, future-oriented and more powerful than any other nation — depends on undoing extreme inequality. Related: In an Op-Ed, [Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders]( call for limiting corporate stock buybacks, which has become a major tool for further enriching the rich. I spoke to Schumer about the piece yesterday, and he put it in historical context: “In the ’50s, ’60s and ’70, major corporations felt they had a responsibility to their shareholders, their workers, their communities and their country,” he said. “But in the last few decades the slavish devotion to their shareholders has skewed what they do.” I don’t expect to like every economic proposal that comes from Democratic leaders during the run-up to 2020. As I wrote last week, the idea of trying to take away people’s private health insurance in the name of “Medicare for all” — which both Harris and Sanders have backed — is [a big mistake](. For the most part, though, the policy part of the Democratic primary is off to a strong start. The Northam fiasco I have no idea whether Ralph Northam, Virginia’s governor, is one of the two people — one in blackface, the other in a Ku Klux Klan outfit — in the now-infamous photograph on Northam’s medical-school yearbook page. I do find his new explanation — that he is not one of them — plausible. School yearbook pranks, including nasty ones, are common, and it seems possible that someone else placed the photo on his page. But here’s the problem: Even if Northam isn’t in the photo, he clearly thought he could have been. When the news broke on Friday, he didn’t immediately say some version of: That couldn’t be me, because I never would have appeared in blackface or a Klan outfit. He found it so plausible that he was in that ugly, racist photo that he initially said he was in it, before announcing Saturday that he no longer believed that he was. And in his news conference that day, he admitted wearing blackface on at least one other occasion. So regardless of who’s in that photo, Northam engaged in the same sort of ugly, racist behavior that the photo depicts. Other voices: The political scientist Theda Skocpol makes the case for avoiding a rush to resignation and waiting at least a few days until the facts are clearer. I’d note that it’s a principle that applies across parties, whether the accused is Northam or Brett Kavanaugh. “I think there should be, in cases like this and [Al] Franken, a prompt process to nail down facts before the calls for career execution without voters,” Skocpol, a Harvard professor, wrote to me in an email this weekend. “There should be a process. And the university [where Northam attended medical school] has just launched one we could wait for.” The editorial boards of the Virginia-based [Staunton News Leader]( [Virginian-Pilot]( and [Richmond Times-Dispatch]( have called for his resignation — as have dozens of Democratic lawmakers and liberal groups, [Amanda Sakuma documents for Vox](. [The New York Daily News’s Robert George]( who was initially unsure about whether Northam should resign, now argues writes that “his contradictory responses and actions in the ensuing 48 hours have essentially settled that score.” A sports diversion The New England Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl title in 18 years last night, an unprecedented run in any major American team sport over the past half-century. Along with my colleague Sahil Chinoy, I’ve ranked [the luckiest two-decade runs]( that any modern fan base — across the four major sports — has had. Boston’s current run takes the top spot, but New York in the 1950s, Pittsburgh in the 1970s, Los Angeles in the 1980s, Chicago in recent years and other cities appear on the list, too. ADVERTISEMENT If you enjoy this newsletter, forward it to friends! They can [sign up for themselves here]( — and they don’t need to be a Times subscriber. The newsletter is published every weekday, with help from my colleague Ian Prasad Philbrick. David’s Morning NYT Read [Schumer and Sanders: Limit Corporate Stock Buybacks]( By CHUCK SCHUMER AND BERNIE SANDERS Corporate self-indulgence has become an enormous problem for workers and for the long-term strength of the economy. David’s Latest Column [What’s Really Radical? Not Taxing the Rich]( By DAVID LEONHARDT It’s time to reverse the extreme upward redistribution of the last 40 years. The Full Opinion Report [End the War in Afghanistan]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD It is time to bring American soldiers back home. [The Meaning of Tony Romo, Super Bowl Psychic]( By FRANK BRUNI Meet Romostradamus. Savor Romomania. And behold the beauty of real expertise in a country starved of it. [The Church and the Abortion Capital]( By ROSS DOUTHAT How Catholicism’s decline increased partisan polarization on abortion. [The Gift of Shared Grief]( By MARGARET RENKL It’s hard to know what to say to people in mourning. Say something anyway. [Calamity at a Brooklyn Jail]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD A vivid display of the Trump administration’s callousness toward vulnerable people. [Facebook Turns 15: A Friendship No One Asked For]( By SARAH JEONG AND ADAM WESTBROOK An honest Facebook friendship anniversary video for Mark Zuckerberg. [To Avoid a Recession, Start Spending Now]( By DIANE SWONK Congress should give the economy a bump. Once a slowdown begins, it will be too late. [Donald Trump Is Getting It Right on Veterans Care]( By ANURADHA BHAGWATI I don’t like the president, but I’m thrilled about his efforts to bring private health care to veterans. [Let Children Get Bored Again]( By PAMELA PAUL Boredom teaches us that life isn’t a parade of amusements. More important, it spawns creativity and self-sufficiency. [Why Can’t Rich People Save Winter?]( By PORTER FOX Ski season is shrinking. Yet the people who love the sport aren’t doing enough to stop climate change. [When the Suffrage Movement Sold Out to White Supremacy]( By BRENT STAPLES African-American women were written out of the history of the woman suffrage movement. As the centennial of the 19th Amendment approaches, it’s time for a new look at the past. [Changing the Bad-Boy Image of Fraternities]( Readers discuss an effort to change the hypermasculine culture. How am I doing? I’d love your feedback. Please send thoughts and suggestions to [leonhardt@nytimes.com](mailto:leonhardt@nytimes.com?subject=David%20Leonhardt%20Newsletter%20Feedback). ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW OPINION [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytopinion]( [Pinterest] [Pinterest]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »](  | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's David Leonhardt newsletter. 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