Is the U.S. Ready for Post-Middle-Class Politics?

On April 12 last year, Hillary Clinton formally announced her run for the presidency by posting a two-­minute video on YouTube. For the first minute and a half, Clinton was nowhere to be seen. …

When the candidate materialized, she instead said this: “Everyday Americans need a champion — and I want to be that champion.” Her omission of “middle class” was intentional. Amy Chozick of The New York Times wrote that the campaign planned to “shy away from the characterization ‘middle class’ — because, her advisers say, the term no longer connotes a stable life — and instead use the term ‘everyday Americans.’ ”

But Clinton’s use of “everyday Americans” proved to be short-­lived, perhaps because of its undeniably leaden ring. (Has anyone but Sly Stone ever self-identified as “everyday”?) By September, Clinton had dropped the phrase entirely. Campaign officials conceded to The Times that it was confusing and, maybe, a bit too close to Walmart’s “Everyday Low Prices.”

The whole episode revealed a fundamental tension underlying this year’s anomalous presidential contest. CONT.

Charles Homans, New York Times Magazine

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