New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston began a two-part interview with the radical impeach-Bush site Buzzflash.com yesterday by explaining how the flat tax has been associated with tyranny, while taxing the rich at confiscatory rates shows a vibrant democracy:

“All civilizations have taxes. All civilizations that have lost their tax systems no longer exist. The Founding Fathers understood the importance of taxes….Let me just carry one further on that. You know, Athens was a tyranny at one time. And when it was a tyranny, it had a flat tax. Everybody paid the same tax. When the Athenians went to a tax based on ability to pay, democracy flourished. Your taxes are absolutely at the core of our democracy, and without taxes, there is no democracy. And I think that’s a very classic, conservative observation.”