Economic Appeals in Unequal Communities: Stump Speeches in the 2012 Presidential Election

Abstract

The 2012 presidential election was, like many elections before it, a referendum on the incumbent administration’s economic stewardship. Romney regularly argued that his own business experience would give the national economy the management it needed, and blamed Obama administration policies for a slow economic recovery. Obama countered that his administration had done a good deal to stop the bleeding caused by the Bush years, and would have done more had it not been for the Republican party obstructing key reforms in congress. Front-and-center in this exchange was the issue of class, both in terms of growing economic disparities, and in the extent to which the candidates themselves embodied different ends of the economic spectrum. A leaked YouTube video of Romney singling out the “47 percent who are with [Obama], who are dependent upon government, [and] … who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them” further focused attention on a national conversation revolving around issues of class and the state of the U.S. economy.²

I am thankful to Peter B. Josephson and R. Ward Holder for their constructive feedback on this chapter. Any remaining errors or omissions are my responsibility.