There seems to be a bipartisan consensus in Washington that the poor just don’t matter, President Obama is part of that…. We cannot abide another campaign for the White House where the issue of poverty isn’t raised higher on the American agenda
– PBS Talk Show Host Tavis Smiley, April 19-22, 2012 [[1]]
Poverty in this country arguably doesn't get enough attention and the middle class arguably gets too much attention from those of us in the media.
– New York Times economics reporter David Leonhardt, September 12, 2012 [[2]]
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
– Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr, 1963.[[3]]
“The true measure of a civilization,” Mahatma Gandhi once said, “is how it treats its weakest members.” Reviewing the recently concluded Republican and Democratic conventions, one has to wonder how the United States is supposed to act on Gandhi’s admonition when its political class can’t even recognize the existence of the nation’s millions of poor people. The conventions richly validated Tavis Smiley’s observation last April that poverty and the poor “just don’t matter” to the nation’s political class.
The Words They Used
A New York Times analysis last week [[4]] examined the key words used by speakers at the two quadrennial gatherings. It broke those word choices down as follows:
Democratic National Convention: Obama – 192 mentions per 25,000 words
Romney – 91; Jobs – 89; Women – 81; Families – 67; Economy- 60; Middle Class – 55
Health- 42; Fight – 42; Tax – 39; Business – 39; Education – 34; Leadership – 34;
Forward – 34; Ryan – 29; Medicare – 28; Vote – 28 Invest – 27; God -25; Success-24;
Choice – 23; American Dream – 22 Energy -19; Workers – 19; Hope – 14; War – 13;
Fair – 13; Auto industry – 12; Millionaires -6; Wall Street-4; Medicaid – 3; Unemployment – 2
Republican National Convention: Romney – 109 mentions per 25,000 words
Business – 86; Jobs – 80; Government – 66; Obama- 66; Families – 54; Success-44;
Leadership – 53; Economy – 41; God – 35; Tax – 32; Ryan – 31; Small business – 27;
Women – 26; Freedom – 23; Debt-21; American Dream – 20; Hope – 19; Unemployment – 17; Regulation – 14; Faith – 11; Obamacare – 11; War – 9;Church – 9; Middle Class – 7
Invest – 7;Job creators – 5;Workers – 4; Flag-4; Wall Street – 1; Fair – 1; Millionaires – 0
It is interesting that the Republicans, the more openly business-oriented policy, frequently mentioned the nation’s still high unemployment and the large number of jobless Americans while the Democrats, the supposed party of workers, labor, and the poor, largely avoided the issue. That reflects the Democrats’ partisan calculation that acknowledging the extent of the nation’s unemployment problem works against the president’s re-election.[[5]]
It is predictable that the G.O.P. didn’t use the word “millionaire” once and mentioned both “Wall Street” and “fair” just once per 25,000 words. The Republicans steer clear of these terms thanks in part to the remarkable financial wealth of their standard-bearer Mitt “Mr. 1%” (really Mr. .001%) Romney. At the same time, it might seem surprising that the Republicans used the term “middle class” just 7 times per 25,000 words – an indication perhaps of just how radically plutocratic their party has become. By contrast, G.O.P. speakers mentioned “small business” again and again, seeming to absurdly believe that most of the nation’s working citizens are current of future capitalists instead of wage- and salary-earners (employees, that is).
A Deafening Silence on Poverty
What strikes me most in the Times’ breakdown of the conventions’ language, however, is the absence of the words “poor” and “poverty.” It seems possible that the Times did not even bother to search for those terms for I know that I heard “poverty” mentioned once in Mitt Romney’s RNC speech, which noted that “nearly one in six Americans is living in poverty” [[6]]). I heard “poverty” used twice (quite weakly) in Bill Clinton’s celebrated DNC oration [<
Paul Street is an independent radical-democratic policy researcher, journalist, historian, author and speaker based in Iowa City, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of more than ten books and numerous essays. Street has taught U.S. history at numerous of Chicago-area colleges and universities. He was the Director of Research and Vice President for Research and Planning at the Chicago Urban League (from 2000 through 2005), where he published a highly influential grant-funded study: The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs and Community in Chicago, Illinois, and the Nation (October 2002).
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