Liberals' Inequality Pitch Falls Flat

From WSJ's Kimberley Strassel:

With his disapproval ratings at record highs, his health law flailing, President Obama decided 2014 would be the year for a new agenda. "Inequality has deepened," he warned in the State of the Union. "Upward mobility has stalled." He laid out a roster of populist proposals: more unemployment insurance, raising the federal minimum wage, giving women "equal pay for equal work." The White House and congressional Democrats have since spent every waking minute holding rallies, issuing reports, tweeting and giving interviews on all those issues.

The political calculus is that vulnerable Republicans can be bludgeoned into joining Democrats to support poll-tested and popular pocketbook issues—thereby changing the political subject and rallying the Democratic base. ...

It isn't working this time—at least not yet. The Republican response to date has been a united and calm refusal to fold.