A new Pew Research study came out this past week that focused on how the Americans view of class warfare has changed over the past two years. The numbers showed a dramatic shift toward more awareness of the inequality between economic classes, and this cut across all political demographics.
Most notably, the change occurred without regard to party affiliation, with the greatest increase occurring among independent voters. That sentiment rose more than half, going from 45% to 68%. The mumber among Democrats increased 18 points to 74%, and even Republicans awareness of the rift increased 17 points to 55%.
These numbers don’t indicate why any of the respondents responded as they did. It’s possible that the Republican and independent numbers reflect the perspectives of some who see a conflict, but view the rich as the victims in this class struggle, despite the lap of luxury in which their “suffering” takes place.
Mitt Romney recently stated that any talk of such inequality “...is just the politics of envy”. When challenged by Matt Lauer on the Today Show to back away from the use of the word “envy," Romney doubled down. He said, “You know, I think it’s about envy.. I think it’s about class warfare. When you have a president encouraging the idea of dividing America based on 99 percent versus one percent, and those people who have been most successful will be in the one percent, [he felt the need to point that out -Freudian slip?] you have opened up a wave of approach [reproach?] in this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God. The American people, I believe in the final analysis, will reject it.”