As negotiations over the next wave of federal support for the economy continue, Republican critics of further relief spending are reverting to an old idea of the besieged taxpayer as funding extravagant projects, writes Lawrence Glickman, the Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professor in American Studies, in an op-ed in the Washington Post.
“In this worldview, the 'taxpayer' (almost always figured as White, male and affluent — but oppressed) replaces the citizen in the political imagination,” Glickman writes in the piece, “and the main task of politics is to ease the burden of this besieged taxpayer rather than support the public good.”
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At center, holding her award, is Abra Geiger ’26, recipient of the 2026 University Relations Campus-Community Leadership Award. Left to right, with her are Erik Herman, creative director of the Free Science Workshop/Ithaca Physics Bus; Kyle Kimball, vice president for university relations; Cassaundra Guzman, McNair Program advisor/coordinator; and Marla Love, Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students.
