U.S. Politics & Government - 20th Century, Political Sociology, Presidents of the United States - Biography, U.S. Politics & Government - 1992-2001, Middle Class
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Overview
Nearly ten years ago Stanley B. Greenberg was the first observer to identify the depth of the middle class's disaffection with the two political parties, which today we take for granted. In "Middle Class Dreams," Greenberg examines how the two major parties have historically wooed the middle class—sometimes successfully, sometimes not—and how the traditional party strategies have imploded during the past thirty years. In a powerful analysis he shows how Democratic support for "the little guy" became identified in the 1960s and 1970s with welfare for the "undeserving poor," eroding the middle-class majority who had supported Kennedy and Johnson; likewise, in the 1980s, Republican belief in free-market prosperity deteriorated into an endorsement for greed, breaking the back of the Reagan-Bush majority. These dual betrayals, Greenberg argues, set the stage for the middle class's abandonment of the traditional party system in 1992. Drawing on original polling data, Greenberg is brutally honest about the challenges facing the Democrats and the Republicans.President Clinton's brilliant advisor offers a provocative look at the radical new shape of American politics, revealing how today's anger has grown out of the middle class's betrayal by both political parties in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Charts; graphs; index.
Editorials
Mary Carroll
Greenberg, a former Yale political science professor who is now Bill Clinton's pollster, ignores the "daily grind of presidential politics" to assess the nation's political situation. He draws on history, on years of research in suburban Detroit (Macomb County), and on interviews with ordinary citizens across the country to argue that the 1992 election "confirmed the collapse of the dominant political traditions that had organized American politics for more than a century." The Democrats' bottom-up vision and the Republicans' top-down view, he maintains, have actually been dead for decades: both LBJ's Great Society and Reaganomics tried to breathe new life into old social contracts but left the middle class feeling betrayed. Greenberg calls for a new social contract built on universal social insurance programs (not safety nets), growth-oriented economics, respect for middle-class values, and reform of government operations. In the face of the November 1994 Republican surge, Greenberg's book, scheduled for major TV and press promotion, should stimulate healthy debate about our future.From Barnes & Noble
A preeminent analyst of public opinion examines how the Republican & Democratic parties have historically wooed the middle class & how recent party-strategy pitfalls have disenfranchised it.Book Details
Published
June 10, 1995
Publisher
New York : Times Books, c1995.
Pages
338
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780812923452