“I grew up middle class” is not the answer to any question other than, perhaps, “How did you grow up?”
Yet that’s the response incessantly offered by Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, when pressed on almost any issue.
This middle class virtue signaling is aimed at assuring voters the Democratic ticket of Harris and Walz is better connected to the struggles and aspirations of the majority of Americans, and to contrast themselves with the billionaire/millionaire Republican ticket of Donald Trump and JD Vance.
Walz, who hails from a small Nebraska farming community, has legitimate middle class credentials. He was born into the middle class and has stayed there all of his life. Harris’ status is a bit sketchier. Her parents both held Ph.D.s and were university professors and researchers. Even though they separated, their children were raised in relative comfort in elite college communities in California, Illinois and Montreal.
That’s not the same same middle class experience as someone who grew up as kids of autoworkers in Warren or Westland.