The Mad, Mad Middle Class

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



The Mad, Mad Middle Class
By Isaiah J. Poole

February 21st, 2008 - 12:30pm ET


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You may not agree, as Sara Robinson provocatively suggests, that the country is primed for revolution. But there is no doubt that large numbers of middle-class people are mad, really mad, about the damage Bush-league conservatism has done to the country and to their futures.

In fact, comments in a new Democracy Corps report, based on focus groups of Republicans and Democrats in Orlando, Fla., and Columbus, Ohio, reveal deep anger and frustration over policies that favor the wealthy and pull the ability to meet their basic aspirations further from their grasp.

Note comments like these:

* Columbus man: "They talk about the economy as working for the very wealthy and I read in the New York Times that $200,000 per year is the new $100,000 per year in salary…That’s the standard of living to feel like you’ve really made it in America, $200,000 a year. For most people, that’s unattainable. They’ll never see that in two lifetimes. So I think it’s unfortunate that there is one-tenth of one percent of Americans own forty percent of the wealth in this country. That’s an obscene number. It’s a disgusting number."

* Orlando woman: "I don’t like people having like no-bid contracts over there . I think that has really escalated the cost of the war too. I mean this war is just unbelievable and the cost and the money could be going to help New Orleans, use it on domestic programs and helping other nations."

* Columbus woman: "The war in Iraq, the amount of money being spent over there, and the cost of oil. It’s kind of all tied in. And then all of that filters down eventually to everyday people. And all of those costs eventually fall on our shoulders. On shoulders that are already pretty well packed."

From the rising costs of fuel to the effects of the mortgage crisis, the Democracy Corps sessions reflect a middle class that feels under siege. And the traditional conservative palliatives, as far as these people are concerned, no longer cut it.

When the focus groups were presented with two economic messages — one based on Republican stump speeches that focuses on making the 2003 tax cuts for the wealthy permanent and an alternative that emphasized such items as investment projects, extending unemployment insurance and child tax credits, these prospective voters were, in the Democracy Corps words, "overwhelmingly drawn" to the more progressive message. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/mad-mad-middle-class

[lonestarnot]

1. Yell FIRE!

[ananda]

2. So..

How many so-called middle class people have been buying the
coded hate speech and regressive social views of Reeps for lo
these many years? And how many voted for Bush?

This is the result of bigotry, hate, ignorance, and manipulation of
the bigoted, hatefilled, and ignorant by rightwing propaganda and
the corporatist media.

[Donkeykick]

3. Good Thread. Thanks.

IMO: I believe that the rich are receiving way too many tax cuts.

The company I work for put up a whole bunch of steel plates up against their shelves in their warehouse last year in order to operate a certain brand of tow motor (they also put up more shelves), and now they are tearing it all down to use the warehouse without shelves because they now figured out that it is just as easy to stack the product up on one another. :eyes:

It's always the same story--lets move something around or buy something else that they will not use later, or throw away, in order to improve the business. Meanwhile their production machinery runs like total crap and they constantly ignore it! :eyes:

(Thinking: Here we go again with another year of zero "cost of living raise" while the business gets their money back through tax breaks!) :wtf:

[ThomWV]

4. The hatred was there before Bush, he just harnessed and redirected it

Those same people who hate the rich today hated the blacks yesterday and the jews the day before that. Funny thing is that they've always hated the poor, no matter what race, religion, or political party they belonged to. Its just hatred bred of ignornace that brings up the bile, George (well, Karl actually) was just the one smart enough to channel it for a little while. Hatred can't be contained though, and its a dam shame. All you can do is wait for it to die out with the old and hope like hell you can talk some sense into the young.

[sam sarrha]

5. you are totally wrong.. people are angry at the injustice. because I'm fed up with the economic

disparity doesn't make me a member of the KKK, or an anti-semite.. you got your head up your ass.. you are not making sense unless you are trying to invalidate anyone who is sick of milton friedmad style corporatism running the government, that is what this is about..

you insult anyone who speaks out against injustice..

read naomi klein's "the Shock Doctrine:the rise of disaster capitolism"

[lonestarnot]

6. WTF are you talking about?

[ThomWV]

7. There were stars and bars in the back windows of pickups long before Bush

Strange fruit too.

[lonestarnot]

10. That's all folks?

Sounded like more to me? :shrug:

[Romulox]

8. LOL LOL LOL The rich as the new "oppressed minority"

You couldn't make this stuff up if you were logged into the Free Republic!

[Romulox]

13. The more I read this response, the more I want to keep this kicked

Your post is much more insidious than I caught at first read.

You are implying that white, working class people are somehow inherently inferior (as evidenced by your blanket accusations of this group's particularized propensity for "hatred") and thus deserve whatever economic exploitation their "betters" should decide to dish out.

I truly have to wonder what, (if any!) points of ideology you and I share such that we can claim to both be "progressives"...

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. It's all about "the middle class"

I don't understand our preoccupation with the middle class. The working class have been taking it in the backside for three decades now, they're past pissed, they're apathetic.

It's going to take more than one election for candidates like Edwards to bring them out of that apathy.

[tblue37]

11. The "middle class" in the US is really the working class, too.

They have lost income to inflation and jobs to outsourcing, and are deeply in debt--sometimes their own fault for living beyond their means, but sometimes through no fault of their own, They have lost security all around. Even those with decent incomes are usually living hand to mouth and would go under if even one thing went wrong.

Most of those in the working class, if asked, would describe themselves as "middle class," but we don't really have much of a middle class left here in the US.

[Hydra]

12. I just got done reading "1984"

And I can tell you that Orwell called it- If there is any middle class left, they simply want what the top 1%ers have.

If there is a middle class, and they do indeed revolt, all they will be revolting for is to replace Bushco.

I couldn't care less. It won't be until the workers do something that real changes will occur...and they won't.

[OneBlueSky]

14. middle class? . . . what middle class? . . . there's just "them" and "us" . . .

and "us" is losing . . . big time . . .