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They are us.
The middle class.
In election years — particularly like this one, when the economy is shaky — they are a target audience of extreme importance. From the left and the right, presidential candidates are courting middle-class voters. And why not? Because if you ask, the middle class is pretty much everyone.
“Everybody thinks they’re middle class,” said University of Wisconsin-La Crosse sociology professor Enilda Delgado.
It’s a desirable pot of voters and, while hardly a homogenous demographic, it’s one candidates can reach out to without risk of alienating other key supporters. With a weak economy, the rising cost of health care and loss of jobs to overseas manufacturing, a growing number of the middle class are scared — and the candidates seem to know it.
The ambiguous middle
There is no standard definition of America’s middle class.
Since 1972, 92 percent of people questioned in the American General Social Survey defined themselves as either working or middle class.
A Congressional Research Service report suggests those with household incomes between about $19,000 and $92,000 are middle class.
But $92,000 doesn’t provide the same level of comfort and security in San Francisco or Chicago as it does in La Crosse, where the median household income is about $45,000 — meaning half of all families make more and half less.
According to Census data, about 13 percent of all families in La Crosse County earn less than $25,000 a year and about 5.5 percent make more than $150,000. But the bulk — about two of every five families — earn between $35,000 and $75,000.
But that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who can call themselves middle class.
Ask Tom Hudson, a former IBM service technician who now owns Chuck’s Bar in La Crosse, who middle class is.
“La Crosse,” he said. “This is a hard-working area.”
His answer is pretty typical. Though Hudson and his wife earn about $100,000 combined a year — putting them in the top 20 percent of La Crosse County families — he considers himself middle class.
There’s always somebody richer than you, Delgado said, and few people identify themselves as poor unless they qualify for government assistance.
“Everybody assumes that if they are not there, that’s where they will be.”
Campaign promises and hope
This year’s presidential candidates — including three senators, a former governor, a doctor and Congressman — hardly are middle class in their lifestyles. But even those with Ivy League educations tout their middle-class roots.
“Hillary was raised in a middle-class family in the middle of America,” begins Hillary Clinton’s biography on her campaign literature.
Both Democratic and Republican candidates reach out to middle-class voters in two ways, said Joe Tuman, a San Francisco State University professor and author of “Political Communication in American Campaigns.”
Those with middle-class backgrounds usually try to engage voters with a narrative. The other way is through issues that resonate.
“This year, it is economic issues,” Tuman said. People are worried about health care, the weakening dollar, the price of gas, their jobs going overseas.
The leading presidential candidates — Sens. Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain — have spoken to those fears, whether through promises of tax cuts, health care reform or economic stimulus.
Of the candidates, Obama has made the best connection with the middle class, Tuman said. And not because of his life story, but because of a word: hope.
Hope was the refrain of Obama’s speech at the 2005 Democratic National Convention, whose themes he revisited in his 2006 political autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Tuman, a former speechwriter who worked on campaigns in California, said all candidates would do better by emulating Ronald Reagan’s 1980 rhetoric.
“Make them feel OK to be American,” he said. “Like things are going to change.”
Brad Pfaff, who lost his 2004 bid for Wisconsin state Senate to Dan Kapanke and now works for U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, says the key to reaching the middle class is promising opportunity for advancement.
“You always want to allow people to believe the future is going to be better,” he said. “We’re the country of opportunity and hope.”
While everyone might think they’re middle class, that doesn’t mean they have the same economic concerns.
Sociologist Dennis Gilbert thinks politicians partly are to blame for the ballooning definition of middle class.
“Everybody wants to be on the side of the middle class,” said Gilbert, author of “The American Class Structure” and a professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. “You don’t want it to sound like there’s somebody you’re not defending.”
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was the one candidate who spoke candidly about the dispossessed, Gilbert said, adding “That didn’t work very well for him.”
Security and mobility
Gilbert sees an increasing polarization between what he deems the upper middle class — doctors, lawyers and upper managers — who are doing very well and those he classifies as working class, working poor and the poor, which generally are those earning $25,000 a year or less.
“The bottom 40 percent are really being left behind,” Gilbert said. “The people in the middle are really nervous.”
A 2007 CBS poll showed a majority of Americans — including 54 percent with incomes between $30,000 and $75,000 — think the middle class is falling behind. They said they would have trouble covering a large, unexpected expense and were concerned about paying for health care, tuition, housing and retirement.
Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard Law School professor who has studied families in financial trouble since 1976. In her essay “The Vanishing Middle Class,” published in the 2007 book “Ending Poverty in America,” Warren argued that while middle-class families today might earn more than those of the early 1970s, they actually have lost ground and are far more vulnerable to financial catastrophe.
That’s because the growth in family income came from women joining the work force. Compared with their fathers, men like Tim Hudson aren’t really earning any more. Meanwhile, fixed expenses — such as mortgage payments, health insurance, transportation and child care — that 30 years ago accounted for about half a family’s spending now takes up three quarters. That means when families fall on hard times, there’s less to cut back on.
“No longer is the division on economic security between the poor and everyone else,” Warren wrote. “Much of the middle class is now on the struggling side.”
Tom Vaughn, 59, is a farmer whose wife works as a UW-L computer programmer. He estimates they combined make about $90,000 most years. With three kids, he said, they often struggle to make ends meet.
“We could be poor in an instant if we didn’t have health insurance,” Vaughn said.
Gilbert thinks slowing mobility has made middle-class workers nervous. A generation ago, young men in the work force usually were able to advance beyond their fathers. Today, that’s less likely.
“Moving up is not quite as sure a thing as it used to be,” he said.
Candidates backgrounds and pitch to middle class
Hillary Clinton
Party: Democrat
Quote: “I believe that the middle class is the backbone of our economy, the key to retail growth and the guarantor of the American dream. America is only as strong as our middle class.”
Pitch: The New York senator proposed plan to “restore America’s middle class” that includes promises to spur job growth, strengthen unions and help workers who lost jobs to overseas competition, and to ensure affordable health care, education and home ownership. Lists “strengthening the middle class” as one of her top three priorities if elected.
Background: The daughter of a small business owner in Illinois, Clinton touts her own middle-class roots. The biography on her Web site begins, “Hillary was raised in a middle-class family in the middle of America.” She attended college at Wellesley College and later Yale Law School.
Barack Obama
Party: Democrat
Quote: “For far too long, our tax code has been so riddled with special-interest loopholes and giveaways that it’s shifted the tax burden to small businesses and middle-class Americans. At a time when most Americans are facing stagnant wages and rising costs, that’s not fair and it doesn’t benefit our economy.”
Pitch: The Illinois senator promotes “middle class tax relief” he says would amount to $1,000 a year for working families and would benefit 95 percent of working Americans. Plan would eliminate income taxes for about 10 million Americans. Proposed a “safety net” for American workers, including dependable health insurance and pensions, skills training and fair wages.
Background: Raised in a largely middle-class family and grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia before attending Columbia University and later Harvard Law School.
John McCain
Party: Republican
Quote: “Hard-working American families need lower taxes.”
Pitch: The Arizona senator promotes tax cuts for the middle class, primarily through elimination of the alternative minimum tax, which primarily affects those earning more than $100,000, although it could hit 1 in 5 taxpayers by 2010 if not reformed, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Background: The son and grandson of Navy admirals, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy.
Mike Huckabee
Party: Republican
Quote: “Our current progressive tax system penalizes us for working harder and becoming more successful. As we climb the ladder, the government lurks on each rung, hungry for a bigger bite of our earnings.”
Pitch: The former Arkansas governor is the only candidate whose campaign materials don’t explicitly mention the “middle class,” but he does talk about the “American dream.” He proposes eliminating all income tax in favor of a consumption tax as a way to eliminate penalties for getting wealthier, traditionally a middle-class aspiration. The so-called Fair Tax would likely raise taxes for those earning $25,000 to $75,000, while lowering taxes for those earning more, according to analysis by President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform.
Background: Father was a firefighter and mechanic, mother worked as a file clerk. Attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Quachita Baptist University.
Ron Paul
Party: Republican
Quote: “Working Americans like lower taxes. So do I. Lower taxes benefit all of us, creating jobs and allowing us to make more decisions for ourselves about our lives.”
Pitch: The U.S. representative from Texas contends lower taxes create jobs and benefit everyone by allowing business owners to expand and hire more workers.
Background: Raised in Pittsburgh, where his father owned a dairy. Attended Gettysburg College and Duke University medical school.
Chris Hubbuch can be reached at chris.hubbuch@lee.net or (608) 791-8217.
