Why Do America's Rich Feel Victimised by Obama?

On the idea of higher taxes for the rich:

Nick Hanauer is a Seattle entrepreneur and venture capitalist who was one of the first investors in Amazon. In a book published this year, he argues that since the Reagan era American capitalists have enjoyed a uniquely supportive set of ideological, political, and economic conditions. Their personal enrichment came to be seen as a precondition for the enrichment of everyone else. Lower taxes for them were a social good, rather than a selfish perk. “If you are a job creator, your fifteen-per-cent tax rate is righteous. If you aren’t, it is a con job,” Hanauer told me. “The idea that the rich deserve to be rich is a very comforting idea if you are rich.” Referring to Obama’s “You didn’t build that” remark, at a rally in Virginia in July, which became a flashpoint with the right, Hanauer said that “the notion that you built it yourself is what you need to believe to feel comfortable with yourself and your desire not to pay too much in taxes.”

Unlike the moneyed gentry of earlier generations, these are people who have been raised in a society that believes itself to be truly meritocratic. It's through the arrogance of believing that you — and you alone — are in the driving seat and that only you can determine the extent of your success and failure that this kind of silliness arises. The rich feel victimised by Obama for reasons other than his policy. His policy has actually been very kind to the super-rich, as the article notes. They see his questioning of their apparently unquestionable right to claim sole responsibility for success as an affront to the idea of success itself.