Chicago’s Vanishing Middle Class

City Journal ^ | April 16 | AARON M. RENN

[Hojczyk]

This is the Democratic Party’s new top-bottom coalition, one in which the traditional middle class—white ethnics, blue-collar manufacturing and trade workers, small business owners, and others—has no part.

These “left-outs” are the urban equivalents of Reagan Democrats. Their instinct to vote Democratic may remain, but the economic interests that once bound them to the party have largely disappeared, leaving them politically unaffiliated. They are open to voting for a compelling Republican, such as Rudolph Giuliani—particularly if the city in which they live appears to be spiraling downward.

In other words, these independent-minded, urban middle classes are quintessential swing voters. They can create political trouble for an unsympathetic mayor—and that’s why leaders in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere aren’t going to lift a finger to try to halt their flight. Indeed, in Chicago, even the black middle class is bailing. The city’s leadership appears unconcerned.

To the extent that the middle class abandons Chicago and New York, the Democratic Party’s stranglehold in such places will only tighten. In this light, the dramatic changes in Chicago since 1970 shouldn’t be seen as merely an accident of fate, but rather as a political result directly tied to the interests of the Democrats running America’s third-largest city. Urban liberal politicians may see value in continuing to beat the “tale of two cities” drum. Just don’t expect any of these big-city mayors to reach out to the middle class any time soon.

[KeyLargo]

The same thing has happened in Cook ‘Crook’ County.

[PBRCat]

Sadly, it is all rather meaningless when the Democrat incumbents and Democrat slated candidates run unopposed in so many Illinois election districts. Everyone complains about the voters who refuse to break with the Machine and support opposition candidates, but it is difficult to do when the Democrats run unopposed in so many districts.

In the current election year, I believe that 31 out of 118 races for the State House are contested.

[jocon307]

The elites have feared and resented and attacked the middle class since one first emerged in the middle ages. They want to be at the top and rule the peasants below. That’s how they like it to be.

Sometimes they get their heads chopped off, but it happens so rarely they figure it’s worth the risk.

[kearnyirish2]

“This is the Democratic Party’s new top-bottom coalition, one in which the traditional middle class—white ethnics, blue-collar manufacturing and trade workers, small business owners, and others—has no part.”

This is a national issue, not specific to Chicago. Obama has ignored the white working class completely, and won re-election anyway. Anyone who believes that it will take until 2050 for this to be a non-white nation is a fool; they admitted a year ago that more whites were dying off than being born, and other groups are still breeding steadily.