Ryan Streeter
Values trump class. That’s the lesson one can take away from new poll data on 1,038 middle class conservatives.
During the debate leading up to the vote on the tax cut deal last week, Democrats stuck to their talking points pitting “the middle class” against the rich. But the class warfare rhetoric failed. Why? There are at least two reasons.
First, as the Wall Street Journal’s Bill McGurn and Politico’s Roger Simon both noted in separate columns last week, Americans overall don’t care that much about how rich the super-rich get, so long as the marketplace is fair and everyone’s got a shot at upward mobility. Americans generally are not motivated by the politics of resentment as much as they are by a culture of opportunity.
Second, more Americans identify as conservative than as moderate or liberal, and conservatives especially are not persuaded by the logic of class warfare. A new Gallup poll shows that 40 percent of Americans identify as conservative, compared to 35 percent who say they are moderate and 21 percent who say they are liberal. And in a new ConservativeHome poll of 1,038 self-described conservatives, the vast majority believe that lower taxes and a business-friendly environment are superior to redistribution as ways to help average families – even though the majority of respondents are not optimistic about their own financial outlook.
Like most Americans, conservatives broadly identify as middle class: 54 percent of the ConservativeHome survey respondents describe themselves middle class, and 21 percent say they are lower middle class. Fifteen percent say they are upper middle class. They are, by and large, not a group that considers itself rich. And more than this, 41 percent think their financial situation will be about the same in 2011 as it was this year, while 29 percent expect their financial situation to worsen.
And yet, when asked about their three preferred policies for helping ordinary families like themselves, 74 percent want individual tax rates decreased to free up more disposable income, and 57 percent want the corporate income tax lowered. Forty-four percent prefer a regulatory environment friendlier to new business start-ups. Only 4 percent prefer reducing inequality by making the rich “pay their fair share” in taxes, and 1 percent support more generous benefits such as unemployment insurance.
Conservatives are especially motivated by a culture of opportunity, even when they are not especially optimistic about their personal financial situation.
The fact that 4 in 10 Americans identify as conservative suggests that class-based resentment politics will fall flat with too significant a portion of the population to prove a reliable political tactic. It may energize the left wing of the Democratic party, but if Democrats keep talking this way, they will give a gift to the Republicans that keeps on giving.
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