by Patrick J. Buchanan – August 19, 2002

“You have no right to impose your moral values on me!”

How often have we all heard that defiant remark tossed into a blazing debate on social issues to clinch the argument? Yet, most of our laws represent the imposition of moral values on a minority.

The graduated income tax, altarpiece of Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto,” is rooted in a moral conviction that the rich should not only pay more taxes, but a larger share of their income. Under the tithing of biblical law, all contributed the same 10 percent. Marx has prevailed.