j.r. leonard

And besides... does the wealth tax *stop* Bill Gates from donating a bunch of money? Especially at 3% which is almost certainly less than his yearly ROI?

Personally, I don’t think a wealth tax is good policy. But I’m just responding to all the weird Tweets I’ve seen trying to play Gates as a bad guy by selectively quoting him and insinuating he doesn’t want to be taxed, when in fact, he said he’d be OK with 2X the tax bill

I mean he also refused to commit to supporting Warren over Donald "child separation" Trump so. I don't think he exactly came out smelling like a rose.

So what? Americans need to publicly declare their vote a year before the election? I despise Trump, but I’d push back if put on the spot like that I don’t think anyone is smelling Gates, to continue the metaphor. I think they’re all using this to deliver canned talking points

Public figures who refuse to say clearly that they will vote for the Democratic nominee over Donald Trump have earned the public pushback they will inevitably receive. They have a right not to declare anything, we have a right to complain.

But it’s not “public pushback.” It’s people chasing Twitter clout. This is again how the politically involved drastically overestimate how important this stuff is to everyone else. I get that a bunch of Twitter pundits are going to pounce. But why should I care?

Oh, okay. Yeah you're not under any obligation to care. I could debate you about how Extremely Online people do count as part of the public but honestly who cares. You have every right to be annoyed, I guess.

But I think you're right that on the scale of electoral politics, nobody cares about dunking on Bill Gates, or protecting his virtue, one way or the other.