Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Overheard in the News: The Middle Class

Was watching the bottom line on the TV at the workout center as I was doing my leg presses. Saw an interview happening with Juan Williams, one of their political commentators. The info on the screen said:

How the Democrats lost the middle class.
Sadly, as a lifelong Democrat, I had to shake my head in dismay at the truth of the statement. Yes, the Democratic Party has lost the support of the middle class. Democrats have become so adept at pulling defeat from the jaws of victory, that I fear at times for a two-party system. (Exaggeration, of course, for effect! But perhaps only a slight exaggeration.)

What the GOP has managed to do in the meantime is get their message so wonderfully wrapped in supporting the middle class that they look like the saving grace for those who are in the middle.  They can spin their policies like a top and come out looking great. Even when most of the evidence points in other directions. They continue to repeat promises that they turn around and forget to do.

And the Dems continue to think they know how to get through this. The leadership often looks and sounds as unreliable as the GOP. Everyone sounds like a politician saving their own skin- or their party's ideology.

In reality neither party at this moment in history is doing anything that truly helps the middle class. What they both ignore is that if we did pay appropriate and caring attention to the needs of the middle class there would be an improvement in the economy, the national morale, and the outlook for the future.
  • That will not be accomplished by giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy in some trickle-down fantasy. That is taking money from the middle and lower classes. 
  • Neither will that be accomplished by greater focus on only the poor, taking money from the middle class. What made America great was the middle and lower classes working together to produce a society, a culture, and an economy for all. 
 Until we start thinking in those terms on a more regular basis, we will get nowhere important or significant and only continue to run in circles.

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