The Observer, November 10, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 10
Free Speech Zone: Attack on "Middle America" not real
Mercifully, the latest election season (which increasingly resembles the ever-expanding Christmas season) is finally behind us. While we still have a few weeks to think before the next round of election campaigning begins, it is important to take note of the nature of American politics today as far as we can determine it.
One element of the recent political discourse which has been utilized by pundits and politicians from both left and right is the rhetoric, the language, of pandering to "Middle America." This ubiquitous and mysterious entity is purported to be absolutely frantic because of the deterioration of "traditional family values" and the so-called war on the middle class (title of CNN anchor Lou Dobbs' most recent book). However, the concept of Middle America is a myth, a tool used by people who want you be afraid so that you'll be more likely to listen to them.
There is no single middle class in America; there is only an ambiguously demarcated middle stratum of blue and white-collar workers, basically anyone who can be considered neither wealthy nor impoverished. The problem with an all-encompassing distinction like Middle America or the middle class is that it erases distinctions between cost of living between regions, the variation in individual opinion, and the completely unique environments of urban, suburban, small town, and rural life. This myth was likely created for political reasons, an attempt to create as broad and simplistic categorization of Americans as possible.
By campaigning on a platform to aid the middle class, politicians avoid having to answer for the role of campaign-donations and lobbying in the political process. They also avoid having to acknowledge the indefensibly high levels of poverty in the wealthiest country on the planet, or having to address the people who live in such abject poverty. Additionally, they can project an appallingly simplified national myth by creating commonality where it does not exist, and excluding those who do not fit into the scheme of Middle America. This is especially true for women and racial/ethnic minorities. The rhetorical imagery of Middle America is exceedingly white and masculine.
But while "the middle class" has always played a central role in representative republican and parliamentary systems, there appears to be something unique about today's Middle America. It is in fact a new form of populism, playing off the fears of American citizens in an attempt to convince them that they are literally under attack. This "war on the middle class" is purportedly being orchestrated by a coalition of immigrants ("illegal aliens"), affirmative action, labor unions, feminists, atheists, homosexuals, and China. Not coincidentally, the threats to Middle America are composed of precisely the groups, individuals, and ideologies which have been consciously excluded from the political discourse.
The assertion that Middle America is under attack is simply inane. The problem is not that there is a war on the middle class in America, the problem is that "the middle class" in America lets all the wrong people tell them what to think: politicians, television pundits, and televangelists – all of who do not care about them. They only want your vote and your money (or at least your acquiescence).
Furthermore, the populism of Middle America is the populism of mediocrity and uniformity. Those who promote the view of a war on Middle America would rather have it that everyone either conforms to their narrow definition of what it means to be an American, or get out. They would rather have a homogeneous country in which everyone was damned to an unambitious and unchallenging livelihood, one where people do not have to acknowledge the shortcomings and injustices of their own culture, where people's prejudices are never called out, and where alternative opinions and lifestyles are permanently marginalized, or better, completely non-existent.
There is no war on Middle America, mostly because the entire concept is a myth. But if there were a genuine war on the close-mindedness and "traditional values" of this contrived entity known as Middle America, I would gladly volunteer to fight.
Pieragastini is a senior History and International Studies major involved with Catalyst: Students for Social Justice, Case-ACLU, and the Philosophy Society.
