The middle class has taken it on the chin during past economic crises. Most of America has, to be fair, but the middle class in particular seems to be the hardest hurt in the long term.
The “upper ten” can always liquidate their assets, and there are programs to help the working and unemployed, under budgeted as they are. The middle class, however, is once again stuck in the place of being able to survive but not being able to do better.
Perhaps it for this reason that some believe the Democrats lost the middle class as a voting bloc. An article from The National Journal posits, “Judging from recent polls, the perception of the president is that he’s spending a lot more time coddling the very poor (the uninsured) and the very rich (Wall Street) than he is the middle class. Obama spent a huge portion of his political capital on Obamacare, and almost none on helping underwater middle-class mortgage holders. Nor did he deploy, in a big way, the enormous leverage he had over Wall Street and Main Street both to induce more lending and hiring.”
So if the middle class has abandoned the Democrats, where will they go? Will this be enough to turn them towards the GOP?
The Republicans and middle class have had a tenuous relationship of late. The Republican Party seems to become increasingly distanced both from any semblance of sanity or reality. However, if the middle class feels that they’re the only viable option, their votes will say so.
The problem with that is the GOP seems determined to diminish the middle class as an economic power, through legislation that weakens small business owners, emphasis on big business and their tax burdens, and just plain dissonance between the middle class and the “upper ten,” even as the GOP tries to woo the middle class to their side. Rhetoric about the middle class being the backbone of America rings hollow when it’s juxtaposed against their legislative actions.
The middle class is stuck between a party that doesn’t understand it, and a party that they feel betrayed by. The time has come for the middle class to take matters into their own hands. They need to make it clear to both parties what they want from their representatives. Their representatives can then either support them or get voted out.
Yeah, that’s an example of democracy actually working. Color me an optimist.
Still, if the middle class is being overshadowed by the ultra-rich and the poor, they need to remind the politicians that they too have issues. They may not be as dire, drastic or extreme as the other socio-economic groups, but they still have them. If the middle class doesn’t speak out to make its issues heard like the rest of America, they may very well be lost in the crowd.
