The question - why has the left so often failed to unite the 99% of people who are not wealthy in this country? Why won't people stand up together to defend their own interests against the corporate aristocracy that holds them down? And most importantly: how can we help Americans see that they are being economically attacked - that the rich have declared war on the middle class and are driving them to poverty?
There is an answer and it's a hopeful one - we are already starting to do the right things... and people are responding. If we understand the background of the problem, it will help us to further clarify our message in a way that will work around the American blind spot:
Our fellow Americans seem to have a difficult time identifying with their own socioeconomic class. The ever-increasing numbers of middle-class Americans sinking into poverty and desparation are vehemently unwilling to admit to becoming poor. No matter how hard they may work, they assume the blame for their own financial distress, because in the United States, the assumption is that if you are poor it must be because you aren't working hard enough, haven't made the right decisions, or are not educated enough. This refusal to identify with other poor people has always been problematic for anyone trying to unite the economically disadvantaged to defend their own interests.
One thing that inherenly divides the working poor in America is the idea that they have the same opportunity for success as Bill Gates or Donald Trump - that hard work and effort are always rewarded with success. Ironically, our national optimism makes us certain that we are just a few lucky breaks away from financial success and freedom. No one wants to identify themselves with the losers - the very idea that you might work hard, do the right things, educate yourself, and still not succeed is anathema to the American ideal.
It all stems from Calvinism. Calvinists believed that if you were poor, it was basically god's punishment for your moral failings - and that if you were morally upright, god would reward you will wealth and success. Even today, Americans equate poverty with poor character, and hold fast to the idea that people are poor because they are bad people - lazy, stupid, and/or inclined toward evil behavior. Rich people pat themselves on the back for their moral superiority to the poor, and poor people internalize the message and blame themselves for their dire straits.
So when the democrats stand up and ask Americans to fight the evil plutocrats who have been purposefully holding them back and stealing their success, the emotional response of most Americans has been "That's not me they're talking about - sure, things have been unusually tough lately (wages have been frozen, my medical bills have tripled, I can't afford to put my child through college, I can't afford gas for my car and groceries, my mortgage is now higher than the value of my home, and my wife/husband has just been laid off from her/his job), but I'm still successful - I'm a good, hard-working person." This response is inevitable. No American wants to admit to themselves that they have failed to achieve the American Dream, because an admission like that is an admission of not just economic, but moral failure. They weren't good enough, they didn't work hard enough, they were lazy and bad, they made bad choices and lacked the entrepreneurial spirit demanded of all good Americans. To admit any of that to yourself would be devastating - nevermind allying yourself with others who share those flaws (against people who have been held up as models of the greatest American Virtue - Economic Success.
No - we will never succeed if we insist upon asking American voters to identify with the unsuccessful when lack of success equates to moral inferiority.
What we must do - and have been doing lately - is to appeal to the American sense of fair play and generosity. We like to think of ourselves as generous, fair, and just. If we frame the national debate not in terms of the unsuccessful vs. the successful, but rather in terms of how we can be fair and generous to others who work hard and deserve to be rewarded for their hard work - we are more likely to win. Then the debate becomes not about my lack of success, but about my determination to make generous decisions that reward the hard work of others. I am no longer identifying with the losers - I am a winner who has the power to help others succeed, too.
We need to tell stories about good, hard-working Americans whose success depends on the policies we choose to enact. We need to demonstrate how our economic laws affect the ability of others like us to live the American Dream. We need to embrace the assumption that taxes are our responsibility to ensure a successful future for the American worker - and that any person or organization who fights against fair taxation is SHIRKING THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO AMERICA. We need to make it clear that those who are wealthy are taxed more because they enjoy more of the benefits of the system we all pay for.
Education, roads, healthcare - together we rise or fall. No one does really well unless everyone does pretty well. We cannot succeed as individuals unless we are safe and able to move around, and we become safer by making everyone more successful. It's only fair for everyone to pay for the benefits we gain from living in a country with an infrastructure, since we all use the infrastructure. It's only fair for those who use the infrastructure more (and thus gain more from our shared reserves) to pay more for their privilege.
Listening to the corporate community screech and moan about raising wages or taxes on the top 1%, you'd think to do so would bury our economy. The opposite has always proven to be true. The middle class is sinking and we are looking at establishing an American aristocracy unless we make a national decision to reverse the process. The struggling middle class must be encouraged to fight corporate greed with personal generosity... to make legislative decisions that show we value more than corporate profit - we value America. We value our shared resources. We value a government by the people and for the people. We value Americans who work hard and those who want success for their families. We value business owners who pay their fare share of taxes and treat their workers, their environment, and their country with respect. We value our national infrastructure and we value our laws and ideals. We can all be fair and generous no matter how rich or poor, and we can definitely all expect the same from others.
The democrats have started using this message, and expressing it in terms of moral living (they may have claimed "values", but we actually HAVE morals), and they are right to do so. It is just important to remember as we form our messages and tell our stories that we are dealing with a special Calvinist context in the United States. We must appeal to the best American instincts. We must frame our message with care.