(MintPress) – As the middle class becomes harder to define in light of economic devolution, both major political parties have targeted what they feel to be the core constituency, and simply labeling them the “middle class.” The term acts as a sympathetic catch-all that proves valuable when the name of the game is votes. And it makes sense for Democrats and Republicans to tweak their plans to appeal to the middle class during the political conventions, as 9 out of 10 Americans identify themselves as somehow being in the middle class, according to the Pew Research Center – 15 percent in the upper middle class; 49 percent in the middle class; and 25 percent in the lower middle class.
At the Republican National Convention (RNC) last month, speakers put on their public relations hats and attempted to woo who they perceived to be in the middle class, which commonly referenced those who voted for President Barack Obama in 2008. RNC speaker and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney along with confidant Tim Pawlenty urged voters that the country is worse off now under Obama than it was at the start of the recession under Republican George W. Bush.
“Our opponents claim to be the party of the middle class. But Democrats don’t understand this fundamental point: It’s really hard for people to be part of the middle class if they don’t have a job,” Pawlenty said in his speech. “If you ask middle-class Americans about their hopes and dreams, they’ll share their heart, but also their concerns. Can they pay the mortgage? Will they have enough money to buy groceries, or gas for the car? Will they be able to get their kids into college or pay the tuition?”
Swaying the vote
The Republican Party has stood by and rallied around the claim that the middle class is worse off than in the recent past. A recent CBS poll found that 39 percent of Americans feel they have taken a step back economically under the Obama administration than under the direction of Bush. But most still think Obama’s policies would benefit them in the long run, a perception that Romney has tried to get around by seeming empathetic.
A Pew Center poll in August found that 71 percent of respondents thought that Mitt Romney’s economic policies helped the rich more than the middle class or poor. Fifty-two percent of respondents said Obama would better help the middle class, compared to Romney’s 42 percent of support. It’s a trend that not only hampers Romney’s run at the White House, but also Republicans as a whole because 62 percent feel that the Republican Party favors the rich, with 26 percent saying it favors the middle class and 2 percent saying the party benefits the poor.
While those figures don’t scream electability, Romney has been on the offensive for months trying to portray himself as a candidate who understands the struggles brought on by the recession. Garnering gaffe-style coverage from the media, Romney last September hinted at the idea that he, too, was a member of the middle class when talking about tax policies at a campaign stop.
“I think it’s a real problem when you have half of Americans – almost half of Americans that are not paying income tax,” Romney said. “My own view with regards to tax policy is that we ought to provide help to the people that have been hurt most by the Obama economy, and that’s the middle class. It’s not those at the low end and it’s certainly not for those at the very high end. It’s for the great middle class, the 80 to 90 percent of us in this country.”
As the Democrats kick off the DNC, their largest platform to appeal to voters prior to the election, Republicans have vowed to inject their ideologies into the public’s conscience through advertising and campaigning in the DNC host city of Charlotte, N.C.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus recently highlighted the efforts of the Tennessee Republican Party and its new “Obama Isn’t Working” movement that promises to remind Tennessee voters of what it calls “failed promises and failed policies” of the Obama administration. Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney said he hopes to sway those in the middle class who are still frustrated with the stagnant economy.
“I’m sure we will hear a lot of speeches and sound bites from the Democrats this week, but voters are looking for solutions and sound policies,” Devaney said. “We are clearly not better off than we were four years ago, and we will make sure that the Obama record speaks louder than the Obama rhetoric this week.”
Sticking with a platform
Democrats have taken a balanced approach when it comes to protecting its image and courting the middle class. The party has been on both the offensive and defensive when promoting its ideas, going as far as literally hiring a PR firm to promote Obama’s contraception mandate in his health care overhaul. The Department of Health and Human Services awarded $20 million to a Democrat-connected PR firm as a public education campaign and to increase support among middle class voters who may see the Affordable Care Act as an added expense.
Prior to the DNC, the Obama campaign also rolled out television ads that pit Romney against the middle class by suggesting his plan would raise taxes on the middle class while providing further tax cuts to the rich, a similar sentiment echoed by Pew poll respondents.
“Under the Romney plan, a middle class family will pay an average of up to $2,000 more a year in taxes, while at the same time giving multimillionaires like himself a $250,000 tax cut,” the ad says. “Romney hits the middle class harder and gives millionaires an even bigger break,”
The DNC will also give Democrats a platform to boast about the past four years of what they accomplished in an attempt to disprove the Republican notion that the nation is worse off than it was four years ago when Obama took office.
But when it really comes down to it, as it has been since last year, both Democrats and Republicans will spar over what party has done the most for the middle class since 2008, a problem that will yield no winner, according to Real Clear Politics contributor Robert Samuelson. He says the middle class will receive mixed messages from each political party this year, with the overall theme that one party or the other is incompetent to meet their needs.
“Obama and Romney can’t do much to aid the middle class. They face a dilemma,” Samuelson wrote. “The middle class can’t regain its self-confidence and financial health without a strong economic recovery. But the economy can’t recover strongly without a financially healthy middle class, which provides most consumer spending.”