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Transcript

A war on the middle class waged by the crony class (and dependent allies)?

The audio/video version.

The middle class is what has traditionally defined this country. This is in stark contrast to Europe with its (even now) deeply vested aristocracy, and in contrast to almost all of the developing world which is usually defined by a ruling class and a broadly impoverished underclass. The US has core middle class sentiments that permeate our cultural DNA (even outside of the middle class).

We were founded as a nation of property owners. And despite the obvious issue of limited suffrage, generally only landed white males could vote at our inception, this was nonetheless a radical departure from the old ways where one was a serf, was always a serf, and one’s children would suffer the same fate forever under the direct rule of an aristocratic lord.

In America the everyday person, if they survived (literally), could expect to enjoy a significant level of dignity uncommon in human history. Even with slavery, and indentured servitude, and a lack of women’s suffrage, this still constituted a departure from the trajectory of prior human history. That the everyday white male owner of 10 acres had a say in his own affairs to any degree was revolutionary. This was a step in a broader, very middle class movement which would soon empower people who were not white, or male, or landed.

It was the middle class (in various iterations) that built this country. But there are those who hate the middle class. Traditionally the disdain for everyday people has come from a type of well-to-do person, particularly of the crony variety, (there is legitimate rich and there is illegitimate, crony, rich) who affects (in this country) a membership in a neo-aristocracy. The scions of this group too often inherit a distaste for things like pickup trucks and religion and “hard work” and meritocracy. Just look at the middle class people with their pedestrian concerns, their affinity for gun rights (which are a direct threat to any aristocracy, which is why we have a Second Amendment), shuffling off to church to worship their “god”. What a bunch of clingers. What a bunch of deplorables. But don’t worry soon we won’t have to pay any attention at all to those racist, homophobic, Constitution loving hicks who are holding society back.

The crony class relishes a big government. This has always been the case. From Hammurabi on down there has always been a crony class using the power of the state to make themselves rich and/or more powerful at the expense of the people.

The modern welfare state is not some example of altruistic enlightenment and “progress”. The modern welfare state, first crafted by the Kaiser in Germany was and is a tool that attaches the people who were once serfs and directly under the boot heel of the king, but who were now more independent because of the Industrial Revolution, back to the state. If your retirement pension depends on whether the state will send you a check in the mail, guess what? In all likelihood you are going to be compliant with anything the state demands.

One of the ways the crony class has sought to undermine the middle class and our bourgeois (said with love) traditions is to pit the already dependent against the people who are middle class and independent or at least much less dependent on the state than the poor.

The unlanded poor will almost always vote one way. Generally speaking they know they are over a barrel and that their fate is controlled by people other than themselves. They want the bits from the welfare state that keep them alive. And who can blame them? If voting for a candidate that promises to increase your food stamp allowance means more food in your belly and in the bellies of your children, and you essentially have no prospect of exiting state dependency, you are going to vote for the candidate that wants to expand food stamps. It’s just human nature.

Who doesn’t want the welfare state expanded? Is it the rich? Generally no. Many of the particularly well off see the welfare state as a salve that calms the unwashed. Hungry poor people get angry. Poor people with just enough bread to eat but are dependent on the state for that bread are much easier to deal with. Additionally the poor who are dependent are less likely to complain as the crony welfare state is expanded. (Which is the real trick.) So what if a certain company gets a sweet inside deal from the government? The same congressman who voted for that deal also voted to increase my welfare check.

The people who resent the expansion of the state generally are the middle class, and particularly the independent middle class. If one has enough money to own a home, and in some cases to own a home outright, and one is concerned with the yearly income tax bill, and property taxes, and the cost of college, and whether or not one has put enough away for an independent retirement (whatever that is these days) one is less inclined to smile on an expansion of government. For many who are educated, reasonably financially savvy, and occupy the broad American middle economic stratum, the expansion of the state is of no benefit on net. It costs money, money that many middle class people would prefer to be able to spend on themselves and on their families.

The middle class is traditionally too well off to gain much from the welfare state, but they are also typically not connected enough to enjoy the spoils of the crony welfare state. (Not that missing out on either is a bad thing.)

As such for both the state dependent poor and for the crony class the middle class is seen as an impediment to “progress”. In some cases the middle class is seen as a flat out enemy. One can certainly see it in the rhetoric that comes out of outlets like MSNBC and today’s New York Times editorial page. There is sneering disdain for everyday people who dare question the direction of a country that has expanded the scraps (just enough) for the dependent (and controlled) poor, and opportunities for those with enough wealth and connections to tap into the now global crony system. Who are these suburban and rural people to get in OUR way? Those clingers. Those deplorables.

Thing is, the clingers, the depolorables, the middle class, the “just leave me alone” crowd, still constitute an important block of the electorate. In fact they still constitute the most important block. And that is what scares so many in the crony class these days. What once looked all but inevitable, the total marginalization of independent middle class people, looks way less inevitable these days. Indeed, there seems to be an awakening going on within the middle class to the tactics of tribalism and divide and conquer that have been deployed effectively over about the last decade.

We’ll see how tuned in people have become in the weeks months and years ahead. The power in this country is fundamentally with the middle class.