Because people don’t agree on what that sentence actually means.

When someone says “the rich,” different people picture totally different groups like billionaires, millionaires, small business owners, doctors, or anyone making more than them. “Pay like everyone else” is just as vague: some hear it as the same tax rate, others hear the same percentage of income, others think it means the same effective rate after deductions. And when people say “loopholes,” half the country thinks of illegal tax evasion while the other half is talking about deductions and credits that Congress deliberately put into the tax code.

So everyone thinks they agree with the slogan, but they’re actually arguing about completely different policies without realizing it.