Unions Are Among the Very Few Interest Groups that Represent the Middle Class

[Teamster Jeff]

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Buried deep inside Princeton University political scientist Martin Gilens’ research highlighting the excessive influence the rich have on modern U.S. politics, there is a hidden gem exploring which interest groups best represent the priorities of the middle class. Gilens found that, while most powerful interest groups advocate for policies that predominately benefit their narrowly defined members, relatively few focus on policies that the middle class supports. According to Gilens, most of these middle-class oriented groups are unions, which is a big problem for the United States, as unions have been declining in membership and losing power for decades.



https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/labor/news/2014/11/14/101163/unions-are-among-the-very-few-interest-groups-that-represent-the-middle-class-2/

[Jackpine Radical]

1. A very interesting graphic.

I'm frankly surprised to see AARP scoring so high.

[yallerdawg]

2. Yes, AARP?

Now I wonder what exactly are "middle class interests" in this graph?

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Some yers ago, AARP seemed to have a sort of Third Way bent--

supporting the Catfood Commission & whatnot, but the membership gave the administrators a spanking & AARP has seemed to be much more liberal since.

ow that you raise the point, however, I too was wondering what they weighed as "middle-class interests". A lot of tricks could be hidden in the operational definitions.

[Scuba]

4. That's why the conservatives are trying to kill unions. Duh.