An Emerging Class War?

As we approach Federalist #10, and a discussion of the conflict between various interests in society, its worth looking at comments regarding the increasing gap between the haves and have-nots in American society. The middle class seems to be losing out the most. Will we see increased conflicxt as time progresses?

The U.S.-based CEO of one of the world’s largest hedge funds told me that his firm’s investment committee often discusses the question of who wins and who loses in today’s economy. In a recent internal debate, he said, one of his senior colleagues had argued that the hollowing-out of the American middle class didn’t really matter. . . . (emphasis added)

I heard a similar sentiment from the Taiwanese-born, 30-something CFO of a U.S. Internet company. A gentle, unpretentious man who went from public school to Harvard, he’s nonetheless not terribly sympathetic to the complaints of the American middle class. “We demand a higher paycheck than the rest of the world,” he told me. “So if you’re going to demand 10 times the paycheck, you need to deliver 10 times the value. It sounds harsh, but maybe people in the middle class need to decide to take a pay cut.”

The Consent of the Governed?

American government is based on the principle of the consent of the governed, but in a diverse competitive democracy, not everyone consents to everything governments do. One of the virtues of a two year electoral cycle is that those who do not consent to the politics of the moment can focus on a relatively quick opportunity to try to change things.

This assumes that they are willing to wait. Charles Blow might be being a bit paranoid, but I'd like my students to read this over and tell me what you think. He argues that as a consequence of the recent election, conservatives:

. . . feel isolated, angry, betrayed and besieged. And some of their “leaders” seem to be trying to mold them into militias. For some, their disaffection has hardened into something more dark and dangerous. They’re talking about a revolution.

Some simply lace their unscrupulous screeds with loaded language about the fall of the Republic. We have to “rise up” and “take back our country.” Others have been much more explicit.

For example, Chuck Norris, the preeminent black belt and prospective Red Shirt, wrote earlier this month on the conservative blog WorldNetDaily: “How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution?”

Are they right to be worried? Is this a correct response (assuming Blow is correct in his assumption)? Considering they are threatening violence against a duly elected president, are they guilty of edition? Or perhaps this is a healthy way to blow off steam?