The 1990s middle class later became the occupy movement’s squeezed core

Evidence

The second group present on the squares was an increasingly “squeezed middle class.” Back in the 1990s, the middle class was the group that most indirectly sustained the Third Way turn of the left—they were, in fact, its prime beneficiaries. Working for the most part in the public and service sectors, this social group was hit hard by both the 2008 crisis and the austerity plans that followed only to finally, after two decades, begin to feel the negative effects of neoliberal reforms. This newly impoverished group coalesced with the one it was now afraid of becoming: the “new poor.” Composed of the long-term unemployed, the homeless, and the new “working poor,” this tag-along part of the coalition was also, historically, the most difficult to mobilize—the trade unions had repeatedly failed to rally them since the 1970s, for instance. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 91

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the irony that Third Way beneficiaries later turned against its legacy — relevant to any reading on the long arc of the 1990s consensus. — connects to: Violation of newly adopted values spurs new social movements among the middle class. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4426; Middle-class factions, not proletarian strata, powered Tea Party and Occupy — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 188; Petty-bourgeois factions drove Tea Party and Occupy protests — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 188 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Middle-class factions, not proletarian strata, powered Tea Party and Occupy #corroborates (0.85) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 188
• Petty-bourgeois factions drove Tea Party and Occupy protests #corroborates (0.80) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 188
• Violation of newly adopted values spurs new social movements among the middle class. #expands (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4426