&gt; The 2008 election&#x27;s obsession with Joe the Plumber, and his concern for taxes on people making over $250,000&#x2F;year. He didn&#x27;t make anywhere close to $250,000.<p>You&#x27;ve entirely missed the point of the Joe the Plumber exchange. He was, yes, concerned about taxes, but he was also concerned that the most powerful man in the country would fundamentally see him as an enemy. Look at Obama&#x27;s response: &quot;It&#x27;s not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they&#x27;ve got a chance at success, too...&quot; [1]<p>At some point between then and now, the Democratic Party abandoned even the pretense of fair-handedness and made establishment of an other (the 1%, corporations, etc.) a core part of their party culture.<p>What concerns me is that this is happening on both sides of the aisle. Trump is a demagogue. Full stop. He probably doesn&#x27;t have much more than 30% support of the Republican Party, but he&#x27;s definitely affecting the tone and topics of the debate.<p>And we&#x27;re not talking about vilifying individuals (&quot;Nixon is a sonovabitch!&quot;), we&#x27;re talking about the rise of all sorts of bigotry against entire demographics on all sides of the political spectrum. Civility is eroding quickly.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Joe_the_Plumber#Encounter_with_Barack_Obama" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Joe_the_Plumber#Encounter_with...</a>