"The War on the Middle Class (By Both Parties)"
by John Leake
"Without a large middle class consisting of married couples who possess republican virtues, the US Republic will not survive. Several friends and readers have asked me why, in my estimation, the Republicans received such a drubbing during the midterm elections.
The answer, it seems to me, is that President Trump was widely perceived to have betrayed his “America First” campaign promises. Instead of maintaining his focus on policies that would serve patriotic American citizens who work for a living, he took a series of actions that seemed to be at the behest of his billionaire buddies and campaign contributors.
The perception that he is a man given to rude disloyalty was dramatically heightened by his treatment of Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene when they vigorously pursued the full release of the Epstein Files.
I’d been a steadfast Trump supporter for a decade, and to me, his preference for keeping the Epstein Files secret was the most spectacular example in history of a politician showing his true colors. The only approximate precedent I can find was the discovery in 1792 that the fiery French Revolutionary, Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau, had served as a paid court informant between 1789 and his death in 1791.
The trouble with the Epstein Class that President Trump wished to protect is that it is thoroughly repugnant to the increasingly narrow stratum of American citizens who may be classified as “middle class,” and who possess what the ancient Romans called “republican virtues.”
During the Roman Republic, these virtues were understood to be rooted in the mos maiorum (the ancestral custom or way of the elders) which emphasized a sense of duty to one’s family and the Republic, and having the moral discipline to choose duty over personal ambitions and pleasures. The core republican virtues were as follows:
ͦ Virtus (Manliness and Courage): Realized through active, brave service and leadership in defense of the res publica (the public affair or state), particularly on the battlefield.
ͦ Pietas (Duty and Devotion): A deep-seated respect and sense of duty toward the gods, the fatherland (patria), and family/ancestors.
ͦ Fides (Trustworthiness and Honesty): Keeping one’s word, reliability, and fidelity in public and private contracts and political relationships.
ͦ Gravitas and Constantia (Dignity and Steadfastness): A serious, weighty sense of responsibility paired with unyielding persistence, mental endurance (patientia), and calm resolve in times of crisis.
ͦ Frugalitas and Temperantia (Frugality and Self-Restraint): Rejection of personal luxury, excess, and corruption, favoring a simple, austere lifestyle anchored in the ideal of the independent citizen-farmer (exemplified by figures like Cincinnatus or Cato the Younger).
ͦ Libertas (Freedom as Non-Domination): Freedom understood not as doing whatever one pleases, but as living in a free community protected from arbitrary power, tyranny, or monarchy.
ͦ Industria and Prudentia (Hard Work and Practical Wisdom): Diligence in public business and the foresight required to navigate political and military challenges.
Institutional and Civic Principles: Beyond personal character traits, Roman republican thought emphasized systemic values:
ͦ Selfless Service to the Common Good: Prioritizing the survival and flourishing of the state over personal wealth or factional loyalty.
ͦ Equality Before the Law: A shared civic framework binding citizens - at least ideally within the citizen body - under common rules and institutions.
ͦ Anti-Corruption and Oversight: A strong suspicion of concentrated or perpetual power, supported by mixed constitutions, checks and balances, and elected magistracies.
The American Founding Fathers were keenly aware of these virtues and regarded them as essential for the survival of the U.S. Constitutional Republic they framed. Such are the virtues of the people in our society who do the following:
ͦ Diligently learn a trade or acquire a serious education, including an education in civics.
ͦ Work consistently hard to excel in one’s trade or profession.
ͦ Avoid dependency on the state.
ͦ Get married and stay married.
ͦ Invest in a home and real property.
ͦ Raise children to have the same virtues.
ͦ Remain loyal to one’s family, community, and country.
ͦ Oppose corruption and tyranny whenever and wherever it appears, even in its nascent form.
Contemplate these virtues while considering the following data:
ͦ Only 40% of the U.S. population (about 133 million people) are employed full-time
ͦ Only 20–25% of the U.S. population consists of people living in married-couple, middle-income households with at least one employed spouse.
ͦ 23.0% of American households with minor children are headed by a single (unmarried or divorced) mother.
ͦ 8.8% of American households with minor children are headed by a single (unmarried or divorced) father.
ͦ 27% of the working age American adults of working-age adults (ages 18 to 64) receive benefits from at least one safety net program (such as Medicaid, SNAP, SSI, or TANF.
ͦ27% of the American population is retired and most received Social Security and other federal assistance.
Obviously, the above state of affairs does not bode well for the future of the Republic. The great vice of the Democratic Party is that it fosters dependency on the state in order to expand its political constituency. Dependent, dumb, and dysfunctional people are the easiest to manipulate and control. The Republican Party pays lip service to the importance of policies that encourage and support middle class virtues, but what do Republicans (apart from a few notable exceptions like Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, and Thomas Massie) actually do to support the middle class?
Neither Democrats nor Republicans do much if anything to reduce the following:
ͦ Expansion of the state, its power, and its regulation of every aspect of life.
ͦ Expansion of debt.
ͦ Foreign wars and the undue influence of the military industrial complex.
ͦ Debasement of the currency, thereby favoring speculators over hard-working savers.
ͦ The undue influence of lobbyists and the special interests they serve.
ͦ The dilapidation of infrastructure and the ugliness of American public places.
ͦThe widespread coarsening of manners and morals.
In the autumn of 2024, Donald Trump’s extraordinary political skills, energy, and ability to weather every storm his opponents threw at him resulted in what was arguably the greatest presidential victory in American history. With Republicans gaining control of both chambers of Congress, he came into possession of an extraordinary mandate. By signaling his loyalty to his Epstein Class donors, and making the catastrophic mistake to wage war on Iran, he squandered his mandate and his America First legacy in less than two years.
Many readers will doubtless protest that, for all his faults, Trump and the Republicans are still preferable to the awful people who are now being shuffled into both chambers of Congress and who will now be given their own turn to abuse us in all manner of perverse ways.
I agree with this assessment, which makes me all the more despondent that Trump blew it in such a conspicuous way. Such is tragic consequence of betrayal. Most people are capable of forgiving a lot and taking the bad with the good, but their capacity for forgiveness reaches its limit when it comes to conspicuous acts of betrayal.
Contemplating Trump’s betrayed but still loyal supporters reminds me of Gustave Flaubert’s famous novel, "Madame Bovary." The titular character, Emma Bovary, grows bored with her kind and devoted but dull husband, Charles Bovary, a country doctor. Longing for a more glamorous and romantic life, she has a series of affairs with men of greater means who subsequently abandon her, leaving her to her creditors. Despite it all, Charles Bovary still loves Emma and is devastated by her suicide. Shortly thereafter he dies of a broken heart, leaving their daughter to live in poverty.
Flaubert, who came from a prosperous middle class family, claimed to despise the middle class for being unimaginative and materialistic bores, and he strongly identified with his character Emma. Though I agree that she is a far more vivid, engaging, and attractive character than her plodding husband, her story strikes me as a cautionary tale of what happens when middle class values are abandoned in the pursuit of glamor, wealth, and pleasure."
