Afternoon Must-Read: Greg Sargent: Prioritize Combatting Inequality. It’s Popular.

Greg Sargent: Democrats should prioritize combatting inequality. It’s popular.:

Short version: While generic “government” still polls badly, the notion that government should act to combat inequality is popular, even among independents and moderates…. A sizable majority of Americans, 57 percent, believes that ‘the federal government should pursue policies that try to reduce the gap between wealthy and less well-off Americans’…. Only Republicans and conservatives believe government should not act to reduce inequality, but even among them the numbers are surprising…. Among Republicans the numbers are 40-54, and among conservatives they are 45-48…. Though it’s often said Americans reject ‘class warfare’, individual government policies to fight inequality–higher taxes on the rich, strengthening the safety net, funding for education, infrastructure spending to create jobs, hiking the minimum wage–are broadly popular. Also, as Paul Krugman and Alec MacGillis argue, treating inequality as a central challenge is the right thing to do.