The Bane of the Middle Class

Laura Baxley of Examiner.com recently highlighted the glaring parallels between conservative politics and one of this summer’s box office hits, “The Dark Knight Rises”. Although Baxley’s article ends on a positive note, her interpretation of the film is hinged on the ubiquitous theme of class warfare that is overt even to the untrained average moviegoer’s eye.  

Off screen, in the real world, while conservatives would like to cast Mitt Romney as the superhero for America, sidekick Paul Ryan has already been thwarted, caught in a heap of lies and misrepresentations ranging from marathon time to allegations against  President Obama’s involvement with the GM plant in Janesville to general murkiness in reporting his finances.  Yet, like the film, another falsehood perpetuated by these would-be heroes and their right-wing gang is that liberals are indeed assaulting the free world by means of class warfare due to their insistence on holding the wealthy responsible for their fair share of tax burden. 

But asking the rich to make proportionally fair contributions is not class warfare. Class warfare is not being waged by the middle class; it is generated from the top-down, like right-wing trickle down economics.  As the wealthy continue to amass even greater wealth and simultaneously further disregard the welfare of society as a whole, the gap between the poor and the rich grows increasingly wider. 

No one could have foreseen the accruement of such wealth amongst individuals and corporations in America today, “nor could they have understood the extent to which money could and would elevate men without honor to great wealth and influence.”

The irony is, conservatives and the corporate elite alike haven’t caught on that progressives are not the enemy: “By 2008 the income of the wealthiest had declined during the economic disaster caused by the policies of the political ideologues whom they support, the Republicans.” 

Corporate elite neglect to change their behavior or attitudes about middle-class issues because they are reassured that their colossal wealth will insulate them until any economic recessions recover. Unfortunately, the right wing is perpetuating a fiction not so far removed from the implicit story line of the fabled Batman.  It is evident in the rhetoric they employ in daily discourse. On Labor Day, a day “dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers”, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) tried to rewrite the principles of the holiday by commemorating management and CEOs by tweeting, “Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success”. 

While Romney undeniably shares Batman’s obscene wealth, one thing lacking on the right is sound economic know-how.

Corruption will infect American government and political virtue will fall by the wayside as long as the wealthy invest fortunes to avoid paying their share of taxes, corporations pay little to no tax on huge profits and in return receive huge tax returns; as long as millionaire politicians grow wealthy on the middle class dollar, but betray the people’s interests to serve those whose bank accounts cater to their personal ambitions. Romney is not reaching out to defend the good citizens of America as he claims; as much as some would like to believe, he is no superhero to the middle class.