Rich People’s Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent

U.C. Davis sociologist Martin (The Permanent Tax Revolt: How the Property Tax Transformed American Politics) recounts a century of efforts to repeal or sharply curtail the federal income tax, which was instituted in 1913. His book pays homage and is a worthy counterpart to Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward’s classic Poor People’s Movements. The anti-tax movement, which “defined the rich as the constituency [it] sought to benefit” and which was led by community organizers from the right, borrowed methods of mobilizing local groups from such liberal causes as women’s suffrage. While the anti-tax advocates never succeeded, they had a real impact when their cause was linked with related initiatives, such as a federal balanced-budget amendment. (In 1982, the Senate passed a constitutional amendment that combined the two proposals, but it wasn’t backed by a two-thirds majority in the House, as is required for it to be enacted.) And the movement influenced tax legislation—especially laws advanced by Coolidge, Reagan, and G.W. Bush, who were all sympathetic to the cause. Reagan’s 1981 tax cut, for example, reduced marginal rates for the wealthiest from 70% to 50%. Martin explores the movement’s influence on the GOP during the past 30 years, noting that the party has come to be dominated by “anti-tax campaigners” and predicting that “rich people’s movements will continue to influence public policy... and perhaps even increase... the extremes of inequality in America.” 6 b&w illus. (Sept.)