We wrote Obama And The Middle Class He Pretends To Care About, in which we examined the ethereal realities that define the MIddle Class.
For some, Middle Class is defined as the college educated manager/teacher/engineer types. Most doctors, lawyers and accountants see themselves as ‘Middle Class.’ Others see the ‘real’ Middle Class as the small business people who employed others in small offices, factories or retail shops. Still others see the Middle Class populated with skilled tradespeople or unionized factory workers, Still others see the real Middle Class as the highly motivated group of people with pickup trucks who place classified ads stating they will do anything, anytime, anywhere and have enough skills to get the job done. Others clean 2 houses a day, 5 days a week for $150 a day, cash ($1500 a week, tax free- not too shabby)…
What do these Middle Class groups have in common? Absolutely nothing. They don’t mingle socially, culturally or even politically. This begs a question: To whom is Barack Obama (and others) talking? The answer is simple and unadorned. Obama, et al, are talking to the Middle Class consumers in all of us. What unites the disparate Middle Class is consumerism. We want the same fashions and the same cookware and the same replacement windows. We buy the same greeting cards and we root for the same team and mascot and listen to and buy the same music.
To be sure, determined and frenzied consumerism is a disease, brought on by a virus that attacks a community with little or no common culture or values. Despite the decades of efforts of well meaning social engineering projects that dwarf the Hoover and Aswan dams, what divides the Middle Class is as deeply entrenched as ever…
All too often and by design, the great democracies distinguish class by economic standing, as if that were the only measure of class status, when in truth. In fact, economic standing plays only a part (and a small one at that) in determining class. Western democracies and progressives in particular insist that class disparity can be narrowed by the redistribution of wealth, i.e., the redistribution of consumer spending.
This is what Barack Obama believes, that social disparities are mostly rooted in an inherently flawed economic dynamic. What Mr Obama and others (including Hillary Clinton, albeit less sos) refuse to acknowledge is that social disparities exist because our economic dynamic is nothing more than a mirror that reflects the current social realities- not the least of which is that we are not all the same.
Very often, the working class and lower class are lumped together as a single demographic. Academics and politicians can be counted on to lump the working class and lower class together. More often than not, that kind of treatment only serves to alienate people from the political process and they certainly regard academia as far removed from their realities.
The reason is simple. Members of the working class want to work and will do just about any kind of work to remain employed and as independent as possible. Members of the lower class simply don’t want to work (the outrage at President Clinton’s welfare reform programs made that painfully evident). Members of the working class see their entry into the Middle Class a job or an opportunity away. Members of the lower class see themselves entitled to the spoils of Middle Class success by way of income redistribution. Barack Obama shares the views of the lower classes.
Not surprisingly, Barack Obama also sees himself as privileged. There is a direct correlation between the lower classes and the upper classes. Members of those classes see themselves as ‘entitled’- the upper class by way of pedigree or station in life and the lower classes by reason of entitlement. These groups validate themselves by virtue of identity only. Obama reminds voters of his identity as a black candidate, in either direct or indirect terms at every opportunity, as if he wants to remind voters his ’special’ class and therefore entitlement. He not have a single good idea or plan- his identity is central to his campaign. While HIllary Clinton points that it is ‘time that a woman’ had an opportunity for the White House, she was not running on her identity. She is running on her record, achievements and experience (whatever that might be).
Conversely, the working class and entrepreneurial class see themselves very differently. They want to be recognized for the status they have earned.
The only time class distinctions between the Middle, Working and Lower classes were blurred was during war and the post war eras. In America and in Europe, the great conflicts and common effort to fight tyranny united those nations in their shared values and common goals, irrespective of class. In the postwar era, the political divides represented the ‘how to do it’ and not the ‘what to do.’ After witnessing first hand the cost of tyranny, class distinctions began to narrow and in some cases, even dissipate. In the postwar era, education was meant to provide equal opportunities for every citizen. The great push for outstanding public education for all was never meant to provide for equal outcomes for all.
With a bit of clarity, we can see that progressives today have more in common with the societies and cultures that deprive people of opportunity than the cultures and societies that provide people the opportunity to succeed- and thus redefine their class and status for themselves. It is only when people are able to redefine class structure for themselves that cultures and societies really succeed. In the post war era, the working class may have been poor but the notion of the ‘dignity of work’ also came into our conscienceless. The working class were no longer invisible and their hopes dreams and aspirations were to fuel an economic, technological and social boom that was to change society forever.
It is that change that progressives want to reverse, because a successful culture and society that offers equal economic opportunity for all, will always self correct the excesses to benefit society as a whole. Barack Obama represents the kind of thinking that is uncomfortable with providing everyone real equal opprtunity.
An email from Shrinkwrapped highlighted that reality. In response to our previous post, he points to Barack Obama, ‘the man behind the curtain’:
Don’t forget, Obama belonged for 20 years to a church that explicitly rejected “middle classness” in favor of racial solidarity. He is dangerously empty of everything except conventional leftist ideology.
A BINGO! observation. For Obama and other progressives, identity- be it racial, economic or victim status entitles one to equal social or economic status. The higher social status is reserved for a special few- those who deny anyone the right to excel, exceed and determine their own destiny. Taken to it’s logical conclusion, progressives want a few to work, take their earnings and cut everyone a check in equal amounts.
What Obama also refuses to acknowledge is the truth that despite ‘progressive’ notions of moral relatavism and silly dreams of a classless society, we really are all very different.
The upper classes see their identity in terms of dynasty. Portraits of ancestors on the wall as as important to their sense of identity as the apostles are to Christians or the Prophets are to Jews.
The solidly Middle Class take comfort in their pensions, savings and the estate they will leave behind to make the lives of their children and grandchildren easier and to take advantage of every opportunity available.
The working class struggle. They will not leave much for their children, other than the lessons and examples of their lives. They have helped their children as best they could and dream that the efforts of their children will bring them easier and more comfortable lives. The working class mark occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries and Christmas with gifts bought with savings accumulated over the year. The working class very often define their success and wealth with close knit family ties.
The lower class is interested only in the here and now and instant gratification. The arrival of the monthly support checks is often met with the joy and greed of Christmas morning.
No matter where on the environmental tree you might have come from, a healthy society allows you to climb higher. An unhealthy society (read:progressive) wants you to stay where you are- they will come to you and address your every need and desire- even if that means bringing down others (an idea that pleases many in the lower classes).
What is ignored or decried by the progressive community that Barack Obama belongs is that when all is said and done, we are all determine our own class by virtue of what we choose to accomplish and work for. It is our character and not our environment that has the greatest effect on our place in society.
Portions of this post have been previously published.