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DR. L. JOHN VAN TIL : WHAT’S IN A WORD? DISSECTING THE “MIDDLE CLASS” AND “POPULISM” |
In the wake of the Massachusetts senatorial election, a sudden cascade of speeches and press releases by President Obama and his surrogates claim that the president is fighting to ‘rebuild the middle class.’ But it is not at all clear what is meant by ‘middle class.’ For more than a year, President Obama defined middle class as people making up to $250,000 a year—promising not to raise their taxes (at one point) and also promising to lower them (at another point). He did not say what the dollar threshold was—that is to say, the income level that puts one in the ‘lower class.
Dr. L. John Van Til—observes the emergence of political claims and terminology that crop up on a daily basis in the media. Yet, the terms are often ambiguous or misrepresented. In his latest op-ed, Dr. Van Til considers the two recent examples: “middle class” and “populism.
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