Middle Class Needs Some Tough Love
One thing should be said about the famously angry American middle class. This may or may not be politically correct and is probably politically suicidal, but let’s get it out: Many problems of the middle class are its own fault.
This point was hammered home in a recent newspaper account of economically insecure Americans living in the suburban sprawl 75 miles inland from Los Angeles. The New York Times portrayed these Californians as the quintessential swing voters, a group whose support both Republicans and Democrats say they need to win national elections. Those interviewed lived up to their reputation. Their vote is in no one’s bag.
While these Americans’ voting patterns may be far from set, their reading habits were very clear. They don’t read - at least not newspapers. Nor do they apparently tune into the evening television news. Their ignorance of political affairs was matched by their assurance that whatever politicians were doing, they were not doing it for them.
These are America’s middle-class nomads. They moved from the Los Angeles area - not exactly a long-settled civilization - and into California’s dry and dusty “inland empire.” Their goal was to get away from the crime and what they consider high taxes in Los Angeles.
The land is a paved-over network of strip shopping centers and subdivisions. Although the people are quite eager to work, many have few marketable skills that cannot be matched by a migrant from Mexico. Los Angeles gangs are now moving into the area. Property values have plummeted (so much for the tax savings). The settlements are now dotted by boarded-up houses.
Most of the respondents, including selfdescribed Republicans, had no idea what was contained in the GOP’s “Contract With America.” One thought that it involved trade with Mexico. Most drew a blank when given the names of Republicans running for president. Indictments of the welfare system were widespread, but the complainants did not know that Congress was significantly changing welfare programs.
While they agreed that Washington’s spending habits are largely responsible for their economic vulnerability, many desperately missed their defense jobs. While government has taken over too much of the American economy, they complained, President Clinton hasn’t been doing anything for them.
Washington talk of creating an “opportunity society” that would turn underemployed middle Americans into entrepreneurial dynamos takes on a sadly funny tone here. These individuals seem hard-wired only to show up at work, do their task and leave with a paycheck.
Americans walk under a cloud of uneducated confusion on a number of topics. On the subject of foreign aid, the common complaint is that we spend too much. When pollsters asked Americans how much they thought the nation was spending in this area, the typical response was from 15 to 30 percent of the federal budget. They said 5 percent would be a more reasonable figure. Actually, less than 1 percent of the budget currently goes to foreign aid.
To political scientists, the contradiction between public impressions and reality makes the questions rather pointless. To the politician, it makes the sound bite a cinch to write. Simply ignore the utterly inaccurate basis of the opinion and zero in on the resentments.
When the subject is truly complex, such as health-care reform, it is particularly easy to hypnotize this audience into repeating the position of whatever interest group does the most advertising. Whatever one’s view of the exotically complicated Clinton plan, it is still amazing to hear the most vulnerable middle-class Americans objecting to universal coverage that would guarantee them health care.
Ignorance gets passed on to the next generation. At school, the issues that gain attention are sex education, condom distribution, classroom prayer. It sometimes seems as though the debates over what the children should learn are more designed to entertain the parents than to improve education for the children. America’s youth vegetates nightly in front of giant television sets, while children in Asia spend long hours in stark classrooms and study advanced mathematics.
The middle class can use some tough love, but who will supply it? Who will tell these folks that they have to read, exercise, turn their brains to “on,” shut off their kids’ television sets?
The political establishment is not the entity to deliver the reality check. American politics runs on advertising. A basic tenet of advertising is to flatter the audience. Depending on the politics being hawked, the middle class is said to be encumbered by the unreasonable demands of the poor or victimized by the avarice of the rich.
The more poorly informed the target audience, the easier the sell. Whichever party has the most advertising dollars, therefore, wins.
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