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There’s some truth to this, and I would add “Guantanamo” and “torture.” But I think, while perceptive, it’s just a bit off for reasons I didn’t realize until last night. In short, one of the brilliant moves of the Obama campaign is to convince a not-trivial portion of the scare-quotes-middle-class that they are part of, or would become part of with some bad luck, the working poor, due to the imminent threat of layoffs or health-related disaster. [To add: i.e. that’s where the working poor shows up; whether or not that’s accurate or not unpleasantly manipulative is a different question]
That’s the underlying message of last night’s program. The vignettes of the struggling middle class were pretty moving–Sally Struthers-esque economic infotragedies, only about good hardworking Americans much like you and me. Basically, they were about people with decent American jobs or pensions from same who were forced into economic straits by layoffs or medical emergencies, trying to demonstrate that Americans are walking on thinner ice than they think. Given the economy and the demographics of the voting public, it’s a brilliant move. (Although I am waiting for the campaigns to move from Heartland America industries like auto manufacturing and focus on the plight of journalists. Our industry sucks, too.)
