The Elite War on the American Middle Class—and How to End It
A remarkable cri de couer by Christine Rosen at Commentary:
Being middle class in America used to mean something—something socially transformative, something even revolutionary. The American middle class represented a form of national social order never before seen on this earth—cultural domination not by the very rich and very educated, or the political domination either by tyrants or the mob, but by a mass of people, relatively well-to-do, who felt themselves fortunate in their circumstances. That was what made the American middle class different from the French or English bourgeoisie. Its members believed, and the country believed, that they were the nation’s backbone, its true governing class, and its moral compass.
and,
By the early-21st century, however, the cultural and political power of the middle class had begun to erode—subtly at first, then rapidly. In his memoir of his time working for President Barack Obama, David Axelrod recalled chastising Obama in 2008 for his “clinical and bloodless” discussions of the country’s vast middle and reminded him of its importance to the Democrats’ election prospects. “I talk about the middle class all the time,” Obama peevishly insisted. Axelrod disagreed and advised Obama that he could not merely “sprinkle mentions of the middle class formulaically in speeches,” as he had been doing. He had to wage “a day-in, day-out campaign on the issue.”
not to mention this,
The arbiters of culture increasingly ignore the middle to focus instead on minority groups of every stripe (the smaller and more bizarre the better), or on the tribulations of the luxury consumer. When given attention at all, the middle is treated as a bunch of exotic weirdos, despite still being the majority.
This essay is so accurate and profound I have struggled to decide on which parts to quote.
Consider the recent cultural and political shifts experienced by the typical middle-class American, shifts dramatic enough to be experienced as whiplash by many of its members. During the Covid pandemic, for example, the majority in the middle was told to listen to elite experts and follow the dictates of the institutions those elites controlled. Most did. But as those same elites mandated harmful business and school closures (while conveniently ignoring such restrictions on their own behavior by dining at the French Laundry, as Governor Gavin Newsom did, or sending their children to private schools that remained open), middle-class Americans watched their children’s educational and emotional well-being suffer as the public schools they attended remained shuttered.
It begins in higher education as I have always maintained. Middle class America controlled colleges and universities in this nation post WWI until the early twenty-first century when they lost it.
What, then, is to be done for the middle class?
There are practical steps that can be taken in higher education that would offer immediate relief to the middle class and restore more socioeconomic diversity to elite college campuses. First (and this is already happening), schools from elementary to high school and universities everywhere must restore standardized testing as a vetting mechanism for admission. When higher-education institutions went test-optional and when secondary schools eliminated blind testing, they effectively decoupled merit from admissions for the middle class.
this as well,
Culturally and socially, the challenge is more complicated. But it is not unresolvable: If you want to stop making the middle class feel as if their own country has turned against them, then the arbiters of culture need to stop turning against the middle class. For several years now, corporations and cultural institutions have pandered to elite values—values that, as we have seen, are not shared by most Americans and that have cost many companies the business of the majority.
A very articulate analysis of the American scene demonstrating the famous warning admonition of Andrew Breitbart… Politics Are Downstream From Culture.
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