Every other Tuesday, the team behind Civics 101 joins NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa to talk about how our democratic institutions actually work.
It’s the final month or so before Election Day, and you’ve probably heard both local and national candidates say certain words or phrases on the campaign trail again and again.
Civics 101 senior producer Christina Phillips joins Julia to talk about election jargon and what some of those words actually mean when used by politicians.
Transcript
Julia: Before we get into specific jargon, why do so many politicians use the same words over and over again during campaign season?
Christina: Well, I think two big reasons are that these phrases are specific enough that you, the voter, feel like a politician is speaking to you, but they're also broad enough that they don't alienate too many voters. So I was thinking that I would quiz you on a couple of examples of this, if that's okay.
Julia: Okay. Okay. Yeah.
Christina: All right. So here's the first piece of jargon: middle America. Julia, what do you think that phrase 'middle America' is supposed to evoke?
Julia: I'm gonna go for the middle of America. The Midwest, you know, not the coastal elites or whatever they may be trying to talk to, like the middle of our country.
Christina: See, you're hinting at a later phrase that I want to talk about, but yeah. So there was a famous study called Middletown that was conducted in the 1930s that tried to identify the quintessential American experience, which they called the Middletown study. So the idea that, like the middle of the country is the most quintessential experience. And they chose Muncie, Indiana, as the like most quintessential town.
Julia: Like small town Main Street, USA?
Christina: Exactly. Now, what I think is interesting in this election is that both vice presidential candidates are really pushing their middle America creds. You know, JD Vance is from Ohio. Tim Walz is Minnesota by way of Nebraska. And that's, I think, because several states that might be considered middle America – we've got Wisconsin, western Pennsylvania, Nevada even – these are very crucial states in this election, these middle America states. So tonight, as you're watching the vice presidential debate, I think it would be interesting to listen to see how many times you hear Vance or Walz make appeals to voters in those areas and consider themselves part of middle America.
Julia: Yeah, so you mentioned this study, this Middletown study. What would the quintessential 'middle American' town look like?
Christina: Yeah, I think it's hard to define. But at least in that study, it was that the vast majority of people were working class and that there were, you know, a nuclear family. Now, of course, this is sort of an antiquated model, but it stuck around the idea that you've got parents and children. One parent at least is working and that it's sort of a small town environment.
Okay. So I have the final one for you, which you sort of hinted at, which is 'elites' or 'elitism.' What do you think that is supposed to evoke?
Julia: I think maybe that term is being pointed towards someone with a degree from a higher education institution, maybe someone who works what you'd consider a white collar job. I guess sort of what I said earlier, maybe it's geographical in some ways, too. [I'm] thinking about people who live in these big metropolitan areas and envisioning someone in a high rise or something like that.
Christina: Yeah. I think what's interesting is that elitism is often used as a critique of other politicians, and there's a lot of kinds of elitism. And both Republican and Democratic politicians use accusations of elitism against their political opponents. So think coastal elites, liberal elites, academic elites, corporate elites. And I think the definition that suits all of these categories is this sense that people are out of touch and they have a disproportionate amount of power. And so just in my research, I found examples of George H.W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton all being called elitist for things like a car elevator – that was Romney – and eating arugula, which was Obama.
Julia: So the actual definition of all these phrases, it really depends on the context, right?
Christina: Yeah, absolutely. I think especially something like elite or middle class. You know, middle class is often used as a way to appeal to voters. Elite is used to criticize other politicians, even if a politician using it might themselves be considered elitist in a different conversation and by a different definition. So the person who's using it, who they're speaking to, really matters for the kind of feeling they're trying to evoke.
