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Liberals are motivated by emotion and sentiment, often to the exclusion of reason. When this phenomenon rears its unsightly head, it should be addressed. In recent weeks, we have been reminded that envy is not only an emotion but also a major component of “progressive” political philosophy.

Envy, according to our friends at Webster’s dictionary, is “discontent and resentment over or desire for another’s advantages, possessions, or attainments.” That is a workable, albeit brief, definition of the term.

A more thorough description is provided by Mary C. Lamia, Ph.D., writing in Psychology Today magazine. “Envy,” she writes, “has to do with feeling unhappy about the success of someone else, or about what they have and, at the same time, secretly feeling inferior yourself. Instead of finding success for yourself or improving yourself, you may be envious and want what another person has or find yourself wishing that the other person would lose that quality or possession in order to make things seem fair.”

“Trickle-down economics” is a term familiar to most political junkies, but contemporary events cry out for an antonym. The modern era is characterized by “trickle-down envy.” Like its predecessor of a bygone era, trickle-down envy starts at the top.

Consider President Barack Obama’s push to raise taxes on “the rich.” According to Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, “by barnstorming the country in support of taxing the rich and government investment in jobs, the president has followed the longtime advice of progressives.”

In the same McClatchy Newspapers article (which appeared in these pages on Sept. 20), Daniel Mintz of the radical left-wing organization Moveon.org applauds Obama’s strategy: “Americans need jobs, not cuts,” says Mintz, “paid for by making millionaires and corporations pay their fair share.”

In the White House Rose Garden, the president said, “It’s time to do what’s right,” and “Washington has to live within its means.” If Obama were sincere in his pledge to make D.C. live within its means, a tax increase would not be necessary, would it? Furthermore, whether taking a crowbar to the knees of the most successful members of society is the right thing to do is debatable, at best. (To obtain votes from the envious left, it may indeed be the right thing to do.) Finally, the premise of the progressive argument — that the rich do not pay their fair share — is demonstrably false.

According to statistics from the Congressional Budget Office and the IRS, in 2008, the hated, vilified and “greedy” top 1 percent of income earners paid 38 percent of all federal income taxes. If 38 percent is not their “fair share,” then what is?

The top 5 percent of income earners also paid more than their fair share: a whopping 58 percent of all federal income tax collected. (Ironically, these greedy, selfish rich folks are also far more likely than the rest of us to donate to charity and to volunteer for charitable organizations.) Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent of income earners paid far less than their fair share: 3 percent.

The most conspicuous display of envy as a political philosophy is provided by the Occupy Wall Street movement — a teeming mass of the unemployed, the ignorant, anarchists, socialists, smelly vagrants and slothful, bored college students. They call themselves “the 99 percent,” but most of us are nothing like them. The protesters share little in common except a seething disdain for the productive, the successful and the affluent.    

Kevin D. Williamson describes the “occupiers” in less than flattering terms in the Oct. 31 issue of National Review: “They wish to identify malefactors and to denounce them, because doing so requires very little intellectual work and is emotionally satisfying — and if this rabble stands for anything, it is the avoidance of unpleasant work and the satisfaction of emotions that are adolescent at best and very often pre-adolescent.”

Most of us — the 53 percent who pay federal income taxes — do not envy or resent the rich.

We realize that the affluent among us own small businesses that employ many of our neighbors; they spend money that supports other businesses; they create, innovate, lead and inspire; and of course, they pay far more than their fair share of taxes. Corporations — dens of evil, the occupiers would have us believe — provide jobs, goods and services to millions of our fellow citizens.

Rather than resenting the wealth and accomplishments of “the 1 percent,” perhaps the occupiers would benefit from emulating the behavior and work ethic of the most successful among us.

Charles Davenport Jr. (cdavenportjr@hotmail.com) writes on the first and third Sundays of each month.