I mean, about ~40% of the voter base, and about ~60-80% of the political class does not believe that we need to have any debate about siphoning excess wealth, because they do not believe it should be done.

Why would they want to debate it, when they can instead talk about literally anything else? When you are cheerleading for the status quo, ignoring the issue makes it go away - at least for another two or four years.

It should be self-evident from their voting records, and the rather anemic progress on that front when democrats control government. Have we all forgotten Obama's first term? If his party cared about redistribution, they would have done something to effect it. Instead, all they managed to do was pass a republican healthcare reform, and then lose a midterm election.

When polled, the voters, on both sides of the divide, view it much more favourably than politicians do, but then they largely go ahead and vote among party lines, so I suppose you may say that they are lying about their preferences. Or that, despite responding positively to left-wing ideas, they respond really positively to the, ah, moral character of the right-wing candidates.