"Being asked to pay your fair share isn't class warfare. It's patriotism."

That was Newark mayor Cory “Bain’s O.K.” Booker, speaking at the DNC yesterday. Ann Althouse was live-blogging and made a grammatical observation:

“Being asked to pay your fair share isn’t class warfare. It’s patriotism,” says Newark Mayer Cory Booker. He gets a huge ovation that turns into a “U.S.A.” chant. They’re “U.S.A.”ing at the idea of patriotism, presumably. Not taxes. Oh, but paying taxes = patriotism. Or, specifically, being asked to pay is patriotism. Who is the patriot in that grammatical construction? I think it’s the folks who are asking other people to pay.

Yes, that is the grammatically correct interpretation (next on MSNBC: why “grammar” is code for racism!).

Asking somebody else to do something = patriotism. Not actually doing it yourself, necessarily. But asking someone else to do it. Or maybe it’s not just generally asking someone to do something, but it’s specifically asking someone to pay more taxes.

Because, let’s be perfectly clear: “pay your fair share” is liberalspeak for “pay more.”

“Would you pay more taxes, please?” That’s patriotic, and obviously, from the liberal/Democrat perspective, there’s only one right answer to that question: yes.

But is that patriotic? Saying yes? He doesn’t actually say. Oh, sure, he alludes, but he doesn’t tell us whether agreeing to pay higher taxes, wanting to pay higher taxes, being grudgingly willing to pay higher taxes is patriotic or not.

We’re supposed to think it is. But he doesn’t say that.

On the other hand, dissent is patriotic. I’m sure I must have read that somewhere. On a bumper sticker, maybe.

It is, therefore, patriotic to refuse to pay higher taxes. To hear someone patriotically ask “pay more?” And to answer, patriotically: “No.”

Or have I taken the logic too far?