2012 Elections
10 Facts About the “Disappearing” Middle Class
The “middle class” will earn a featured role in the upcoming election season. You will hear rhetoric – almost certainly from both sides – that the middle class is disappearing and “the other guy” is to blame and/or will make it worse. They will present their own policies as the solution to the middle class dilemma.
But what do we really know about the middle class? I realized that I had never actually seen or heard an official definition of the middle class, and that got me thinking: without a definition, any statistics, accusations, and plans are baseless and arbitrary. So I set out to uncover the truth behind the claims that the middle class is disappearing. I share what I learned with you.
1. Most Americans think they are “middle class”
A CBS News poll (2007) and a USA Today poll (2006) both discovered that about 90% of Americans self-identify as belonging to the middle class. This data clearly reveals perception bias on both the lower and higher end of the income spectrum. Interestingly enough, this is not unique to the USA – the same bias has been observed in Argentina.
2. The “middle class” has no official definition
While researching for this article, I was surprised to discover that the government does not have an official definition of “middle class”. Considering how often politicians of all stripes cite statistics about the middle class to further their particular policies, I naturally assumed there was an official benchmark. Turns out there isn’t really even a generally-accepted definition.
I note with no small amount of incredulity the convenience of our ruling class being able to cite statistics based on arbitrary definitions to a population which largely self-identifies as belonging to the demographic in question. Perhaps the fact that there is no official definition of “middle class” is no accident?
So how can we even have a rational discussion about the middle class without being able to define its boundaries? Read on!
HillBuzz Open Thread: Wednesday February 29th, 2012
Happy Leap Day everyone!
Kevin has been dealing with some computer problems lately, so I’ll be posting the open threads until he’s back. He may be needing to buy a new machine. But rest assured, he is working on some fun and exciting initiatives that I’m sure he’ll reveal to all of us soon!
So Mitt Romney pulled out a victory in Michigan and Arizona last night. The current delegate count is:
- Romney: 163
- Santorum: 83
- Gingrich: 32
- Paul: 19
Hunstman also technically has 2 delegates if anyone cares.
Up next is a Caucus in Washington State on March 3rd, and then Super Tuesday on the 6th.
Super Tuesday should be interesting. The two biggest wins – Georgia and Ohio – are currently trending heavily in favor of Gingrich and Santorum, respectively. That was yesterday’s polling, before Romney won Michigan and Arizona, but Romney trailed by 10+ in both states. Tennessee also has a lot of delegates up for grabs, and Santorum currently leads that state by around 20 points. Oklahoma is also trending pretty solidly in Santorum’s favor at the moment.
I have no idea about Newt’s plans, but Super Tuesday is going to be a big loss for Gingrich unless he is able to make a serious turnaround in the next week. As of right now, it looks like the GOP nomination is shaping up to be a two man race between Romney – who will probably come out of Super Tuesday with a slight edge overall – and Santorum, who is currently positioned to have a big night come March 6th.
Of course, the political winds blow hard and change quickly. What do you all think?
HillBuzz Open Thread: Tuesday February 28th, 2012
59 Delegates are up for grabs in today’s Arizona and Michigan Primaries. The media, in its never ending quest to demand our attention, is claiming Michigan to be a “must win” for Romney. Santorum certainly has a shot at Michigan. He’s polling in essentially a dead heat with Romney leading up to the Primary, and most of the polls I’ve seen show him with a slight edge (still inside the margin of error). Yet something tells me that if Romney loses, he’s not exactly going to pack up his tent and go home. What say you?
The latest Rasmussen polling is fairly positive for the GOP field, other than Newt. Rasmussen shows Romney, Santorum, and Paul all within the margin of error from Obama among likely voters. A Gallup poll revealed the same for Romney and Santorum, and even had Santorum up over Obama by 3 points among registered voters.
Newt is currently bringing up the rear in this statistic with Obama holding a 10 point lead over Gingrich in most major polls. I know there are a number of Newt supporters here. What do you think about this?
Personally, although I follow politics closely and have watched all the debates and researched the candidates fairly well, I can’t say that any of them are “my guy”. There are things I like and things I dislike about each of them. I don’t really care what the media says about “electability” (or, really, what the media says about anything) because the entire game is going to change once the GOP picks a candidate and that person goes head to head with Obama.
I know there are strong opinions here about the candidates. I’d love to hear your thoughts today!
What else is on your minds?
How Would YOU Symbolize Voter Fraud in An Easy to Understand Form?
[ Click above to embiggen: How would YOU symbolize voter fraud? ]
I want to open this up to the creative types for a little brainstorming session this weekend — how would YOU symbolize the various kinds of voter fraud in simple, easy to understand graphics?
What I’m looking for are images that, when placed next to a voting booth, you INSTANTLY recognize as one of the ways elections are rigged or stolen.
* Computers (robots) stealing electronic votes
* Gremlins engaging in ballot irregularities
* Cartoon characters voting
* Dead people voting
* Pets voting
* People voting multiple times
What else seemingly keeps happening, every single election, and makes the news briefly every once in a while that YOU associate with “voter fraud”?
If you had the chance to add some sort of image to the illustration above to depict a kind of voter fraud you know keeps happening, what would that visual be (and why)?
Ron Paul Won Nevada Caucus – And Nevada Voters Lost
Ron Paul speaks in Minnesota, H/T The Daily Beast
While you were busy enjoying your bread and circuses yesterday, operatives from the Nevada GOP–aided and abetted by all four cable “news” networks–were busily manipulating the results of the Nevada Caucuses, handing another undeserved victory to Mittens “It’s My Turn, Peasants” Romneycare.
You probably aren’t aware of this, because the TeeVee told you that Mitt Romney won, nothing to see here, move along now, after a mere 5% of the vote had been counted.
But what the TeeVee didn’t tell you–for about an entire day–is that the Nevada GOP refused to release the results from Clark County, Nevada’s most populous county and the home of 60% of Nevada’s registered voters. In fact, as of this writing, more than 30 hours after the last caucus closed, the Nevada Caucuses are still not decided. (Well, not in the “lawfully and transparently counting the votes to see who got the most” sense. They’ve already been decided in the “we count the votes, and we already decided in advance that Mittens was going to win” sense.)
Here’s some coverage of the “special caucus” that Newt’s billionaire casino magnate backer bought for him. It was the last caucus that took place, and is in Clark County, where 60% of all Nevada voters are located. Later that night, CNN also aired the live counting of the votes at that caucus. In the video below, CNN joins the event at the point where the candidates’ supporters were giving stump speeches. Over two dozen caucus voters spoke on Ron Paul’s behalf, in an audience that was expected to be largely Seventh-Day Adventists and Orthodox Jews. Romney, Gingrich and Santorum only inspired two or three supporters to speak on their behalf, according to one witness who voted at the caucus.
Here are the results, counted and announced live on CNN:
Ron Paul: 183
Mittens Romney: 61
Newt Gingrich: 57
Rick Santorum: 16
It’s remarkable that the total is so high, given the fact that the caucus organizers forced those who wanted to vote to sign a “religious declaration” affidavit before giving them a ballot, likely in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Even with religious discrimination the results favored Ron Paul, as the Paul campaign expected, based on their internal polling. (At some point in the past two weeks, I read that the Paul campaign had identified over 20,000 definite Ron Paul voters in advance of the caucuses. I’ll post a source if I can find it.)
Ron Paul’s vote totals have more than doubled in every primary or caucus so far over his 2008 totals, and since he has had a massive organization in Nevada for four years, and Nevada is a libertarian state, he was expected to either win or tie for first place. And in the ONE large Clark County caucus where the votes were counted in public, on live television, Ron Paul won by a landslide, as was expected.
Apparently, that was bad news for those in the Cocktail Party GOP in Nevada.
Miraculously, “irregularities” were quickly found that required the party operatives to sequester themselves in a smoke-filled room and “recount” the votes from Clark County (until they get the totals they had decided upon in advance?)
At 3:10 a.m. Monday, nearly 10% of the votes have still not been reported. At this point, Ron Paul is listed in third place with only 5,901 votes–fewer votes than he received in 2008, when he placed second to Mitt Romney in the Nevada caucuses.
And just as miraculously, the chairwoman of the GOP in Nevada resigned effective 12:01 Sunday morning, in a move she claimed was pre-planned and had nothing whatsoever to do with the voter fraud the Nevada GOP was apparently undertaking.
Here’s a shorter version of events of the caucus voting and counting.
Move along, peasants. Nothing to see here. Turn up the surround sound and pass the hot wings.
URGENT WARNING: Do Not Under Any Circumstances Early Vote In Illinois — Electronic Voting Not Secure In This State
If you live in the state of Illinois, do not ever early vote — the electronic voting machines in this state are not secure and entities are manipulating computers to rig elections through complex slights of hand (or keyboard and lever, as the case may be).
I’m sure you’re shocked, right? Voter fraud in Illinois, of all places? Next thing you know, somebody will tell you John F. Kennedy owed his presidency to this kind of smoke-filled-room and cemetery-friendly sort of thing.
There’s a woman here in Chicagoland who I — honest to goodness — believe will one day be written about in history books alongside Mercy Otis Warren, Harriet Tubman, Amelia Earhart, Jane Adams, and Susan B. Anthony; this woman is fearless and one of the few people I’ve ever met who made me stand back and think, “Wow…I just met somebody who they’re going to make a movie about someday…and whoever gets to play her in it is going to walk home with the Academy Award, hands-down”.
She’s a dynamo named Sharon Meroni who began a one-woman crusade against Voter Fraud in Illinois — which is clearly one of — if not the — most corrupt states in the union, where every trick imaginable is employed to tilt elections to the permanent political class’ pre-determined results.
This fraud is bipartisan, folks, as the permanent political class envelopes both sides of the political aisle and corrupt Republicans turn blind eyes to the election-rigging committed by Democrats while the Democrats are busy doing the same thing for Republicans in races the two parties agreed ahead of time they’d each win…so entrenched political power players are forever guaranteed re-election so they can maintain their aristocratic stranglehold on this state.
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2008 Romney Campaign:Hey…let’s offer Global Romneycare.
(h/t Bare Naked Islam)
This video is from Romney’s 2008 campaign. The girl asking the question only wanted to know if Mittens would continue the good work that George W. Bush had done combatting AIDS in Africa but Romney had bigger plans for our tax dollars. You heard him correctly…he thinks America should provide free health care to the world….just like Hezbollah did in southern Lebanon. Doesn’t this smack of something a Democrat candidate would say? The phrase “Global Health Diplomacy” makes me very nervous. I think what President Bush did in Africa was wonderful but Romney is suggesting something along the lines of “free health care for all”.
Maybe if we give the world free health care…they’ll like us better.
Can you say Global Romneycare?
Should we start calling it RomneyHezbollahcare?
Holy Cow!
