Thread by @jaketapper

The free speech part or the freedom of assembly part?

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1092098638992629767

It's not fun (or necessarily even fair) being heckled or shouted at or harshly criticized, but to say it's contrary to the spirit of this country is, um, no.

Ok some folks are saying I shouldn’t focus on the “yelling from the rafters” part of what he’s saying, that it’s class resentment that he’s saying is contrary to the spirit of the US. A la this recent study from U Chicago...

research.chicagobooth.edu/~/media/5cc3cf…

To wit, that “the idea of upward social mobility is part of the American ethos,” and any comparable emphasis on downward social mobility has been “notably absent,” as summarized here at The American Interest —

the-american-interest.com/2016/01/13/how…

... and discussed here at @BrookingsInst —

brookings.edu/blog/social-mo…

@BrookingsInst On the other hand, to act as these criticisms are unusual in the U.S. is ahistorical. TR went after the “malefactors of great wealth" --

archive.wilsonquarterly.com/essays/tr-and-…

@BrookingsInst Read Justin Fox here in Harvard Business Review, "America’s Long and Productive History of Class Warfare"

hbr.org/2014/03/americ…

@BrookingsInst "Belshazzar Blaine and the Money Kings," New York World, October 30, 1884

elections.harpweek.com/1884/cartoon-1…

@BrookingsInst Another piece I recommend: "From Karl Marx to Karl Rove: “Class Warfare” in American Politics," by @SarahBradySiff

origins.osu.edu/article/karl-m…

And lest we forget, Bruce Thorton at @HooverInst reminds us in "Class Warfare, An American Tradition" that James Madison argued the "clash between rich and poor as the most dangerous factional strife the Constitution was designed to limit."

hoover.org/research/class…

Madison made the argument in Federalist 10:

“The most common and durable source of factions, has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold, and those who are without property, have ever formed distinct interests in society"

avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/f…

General Andrew Jackson, April 26, 1824, wrote of his concerns that “a moneyed aristocracy" would be "dangerous to the liberties of the country."

books.google.com/books?id=v2hLA…

SO in short (not really): perhaps @HowardSchultz was more focused on the message of those in "the rafters" "yelling", in his words, "you have been successful, you are a bad person and we're going to be punitive to you" (?) and NOT the "yelling" of that "from the rafters"...

...in a week where he has been heckled literally and figuratively, it was easy to misunderstand that -- if that's what he meant. (Though i'd love to see examples of anyone saying "you're successful therefore you're a bad person therefore you deserve punishment.") ...

BUT even those who believe the sentiment that “the idea of upward social mobility is part of the American ethos" would also concede that the existence of those willing to criticize the amassing of/power of wealth in this American system IS ALSO part of our American experiment.FIN