When Palinolithic Republicans assert that the Reagan years were a particularly happy time for America, and refreshed joy awaits the country if we return to them, they neglect that the burst of pent-up entrepreneurialism was only possible because it had been pent-up for so long, and, more subtly, that the redistributive income taxes from 1930 to 1980 had reduced the economic clout of the established financial aristocracy, creating a vacuum at the top that motivated people into superhuman acts of achievement.

Middle America spent the last ten years distracted by terrorism, pornography and survival, while mega-wealthy individuals have been quietly solidifying their economic position, to the point where we are at the genuine risk of an intergenerational aristocracy that will stifle entrepreneurialism for years to come and a return to the Reagan era of easy money and deregulation would accelerate that trendency.