BARACK, HILLARY, AND THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS
Mar 5th, 2008 by Conor McCabe
The race for the White House, in particular the race for the Democratic nomination, is proving once again that in American politics, it’s the economy, stupid.
For the rest of the world, American foreign policy looms large. The American economy is also an issue, but our coverage and analysis tends to focus on Iraq, the Middle East, torture, renditions, and Guantanamo Bay. In many ways, this is to be expected, as American foreign policy affects the world like no other. Inside America, the war in Iraq is of course a huge issue, but in reality it’s the economy, and especially Bush´s partisan administration of it, that looms the largest. Americans, once again, are losing their jobs. They are losing their houses. And they are watching the super-rich receive tax-breaks, while the rest receive redundancy checks.
The campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have also brought into focus an element of American life rarely discussed by the mainstream: namely, class divisions and class politics in America. This campaign is the first in recent times where the working class are being talked about as king (or queen) makers. Average incomes have dropped by a $1,000 in the past seven years. As a result, both Obama and Clinton have made direct appeals to working class America - in terms of curbing free trade agreements and a (limited) return to protectionism, guarantees of universal health care, and tax breaks for working parents and for college funds - all to be paid for by, gasp, taxing the super-rich.
And the talk is of the working class, not just of middle class Americans. The “blue-collar” tag has been supplanted in the American mainstream media by “working class.” Here are a few examples.
From Reuters: Working class woes key for Obama and Clinton in Ohio.
From Fox news: Poll: Whites Backing Clinton in TX, OH
The Washington Post: White Working-Class Voters Fuel Clinton’s Comeback , For Hillary’s Campaign, It’s Been a Class Struggle
CBS: Obama Makes Pitch To Working Class Voters
The Wall Street Journal: White Men Hold Key for Democrats: Contest May Hinge On Blue-Collar Vote
It has led to some interesting definitions in the mainstream as to what constitutes working class in America. According to the Wall Street Journal:
Working-class men are generally defined as those without a college degree, including union members and workers with service and technical jobs, typically making less than $50,000 a year. They are especially crucial in Ohio, where they make up about 28% of the vote, as well as other battleground states including Michigan (about 27%), West Virginia (33%), Missouri (27%), Minnesota (27%), Pennsylvania (27%), Wisconsin (29%) and Iowa (34%). (”White men hold key for Democrats” 19 February, 2008)
From the Washington Post:
Voters such as [Roxanne] Zygmund in cities such as Bayonne [New Jersey] have been the backbone of Hillary Clinton’s support in the Democratic primaries. Exit poll results from contested primary states so far show that she regularly scores better among working-class white voters — those without college degrees, and those with incomes under $50,000. Obama’s voters, by contrast, tend to be the more affluent, the college-educated and African Americans. Clinton has the beer drinkers; Obama has the wine connoisseurs. (”Working Class Whites” 3 February 2008)
And from Fox News:
Working class people, especially those who are white, are another group Clinton has been carrying, and Wisconsin Democrats include large proportions of them compared to the rest of the nation’s Democrats. About four in 10 voters in Democratic primaries across the nation this year earn less than $50,000 annually, compared to half in Wisconsin’s 2004 contest.” (”Wisconsin Will Test Clinton’s Support” 19 February 2008)
The interesting figure here is $50,000 a year or less, with education up to some form of third-level qualification, but no college degree.
According to the US Census Bureau, in 2005 there were 191,884,000 Americans aged 25yrs or more. Of these, 179,565,000 had some form of income. The figures for non-college graduates earning $50,000 or less was 108,360,000.
The American mainstream media has not followed through on its maths, but by its own definitions the working class in America constitute 56.7% of the population over the age of 25, and 60.34% of those over the age of 25 with an income of one form or another.
The American academic, Michael Zweig, has written extensively on the issue of class in America. His definition of class is one that is related more to work and societal power than mere income. As such, he sees the American working class as constituting around 62% of the population. A fairly succinct article on his ideas can be found here, while over on Irish Left Review you can see our attempt to apply his ideas to the Irish economy.
What is interesting, however, is that the American mainstream media is not only talking about class and politics, but is actually giving a definition that points to the working class as the majority of working people - and a majority of the population as a whole.
With regard to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both have already done their homework and have identified the American working class as the make or break demographic for selection as the Democratic candidate. It is difficult to see how either candidate could change focus post-selection. And the fact that all sides are talking about the clash of interests between the Super-rich and the American working class should make for a dynamic campaign this Autumn.
It´s funny, but in terms of social democracy and class analysis, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and even Fox news, are more in touch with the realities of the divisions within a capitalist economy than the Irish Labour party.
Quite simply, that has to change.
Not sure I get your graph - where are those without a degree but earning more than 50k?
Interesting figure though, $50k (€32,900) - almost exactly the usually quoted Irish average salary (graduate and non- grad) and we’re supposed to be a high wage economy. Given that the cost of living in most of the states is a lot lower than here, our supposedly highly paid working class must be suffering even more than their US counterparts…….
The definition of $50,000 as the cut-off point for working class/middle class is the American media´s, not mine. So, in their eyes, regardless of college degree or not, if you are earning $50,000 or more a year, you are middle class. Also, regardless of income, in their eyes if you are university-educated you are middle class as well.
what´s interesting, though, is that even with that, they are effectively saying that at least 56% to 60% of the American working population over 25yrs is a member of the working class. I mean, it’s from America that we got the idea of “lower middle class” and so forth. They seem to have dropped that and are just going for “blue collar” and “working class” as $50,000 or less, non-university educated.
The idea of income as sole arbitrator of class is one used by the mainstream media here, but it’ll be a while before you see them come out with such a statement as €32,000 the division point between working class and middle class.
We shouldn’t forget that people in the US don’t see the economy and the war as being mutually exclusive issues, in fact according to an AP poll [1] ‘Pulling out of the war ranked first among proposed remedies’ for recession. MoveOn recently “initiated a campaign to reframe Iraq and the economy” - under the idea of an ‘Iraq recession’. [2]
And John and Elizabeth Edwards recently commented… “The country is spending billions of dollars every month in Iraq, and at the same time we’ve got 40-plus million Americans who don’t have health care coverage.” [3]
Seperating the two issues should be seen as a major success for Democrats and Republicans alike.
See www.rockridgenation.org for more.
1. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23073316/
2. http://pol.moveon.org/lte/?campaign_id=88&rc=homepage
3. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/john_and_elizabeth_edwards_bla.html
[i]Also, regardless of income, in their eyes if you are university-educated you are middle class as well.[/i]
Well that’s a comfort…..
Dav, it´s true that the issues are not seen as mutually exclusive, but it is interesting that Iraq is framed in terms of the damage it is doing to the economy.
I think, or hope, it’s more so a plan to create issue based framing in order to combat ring wing think tank conspired framing. You can be sure the right has instilled the idea of a presence in the Middle East as an economic necessity.
Looked at in isolation it’s quite offensive, though it is the same economic savagery that compels ‘reasoned’ debate in Irish broadsheets over the financial and employment implications of opposing military use of Shannon.
I don´t think Clinton/Obama have re-focused on the economy in order to combat right wing think tank conspired framing on the idea of an American military presence in the Middle East as an economic necessity.
Clinton/Obama have re-focused on the economy because that is what affects most Americans. People are losing their jobs. They´re worried about getting sick and dying, or losing their job and having their house taken from them.
Me neither. The idea of an ‘Iraq recession’ is an idea dreamt up by progressives, nothing to do with Obama or Clinton.
[…] A great post over at on the class aspect of the Clinton/Obama campaign by Conor. […]
but when they say working class they middle class, they don’t think working class as we know it exists
where I come from ( dirty south) a person earning 50,000 is rich, the working class earn about 15,000-27,000 a year. Where does the statistics derrive from that detail working class earn $50,000, when college graduates doesn’t earn that much here with a master degree ?
I didn’t say statistics, I said the media, in particular, the Wall Street Journal. Zweig’s analysis puts class in terms of power relations, not necessarily income, although there is usually a link. so Zweig wouldn’t give a figure as a cut-off point for class, as it goes against the idea of class as a relationship, not a category. Under that analysis (relational), working class occupations constitute around 60% of the working population.