One of the oldest and most primitive methods of winning popular support is the strategy of polarization.  Rally the people around a common enemy.  President Obama, ironically labeled the post-partisan President, uses hyper-partisanship and class warfare rhetoric to polarize Americans.  He is constantly dividing America into the needy and exploited, versus the corrupt and powerful.  It is a polarization based on class warfare.  In America, there is no tradition of class warfare let alone popular support for such divisive rhetoric.

President Obama and liberal Democrats see America as a battle of classes or groups fighting for wealth and power.  They claim they represent more sympathetic groups, like racial minorities, the unemployed, and the working poor.  They also claim the Republicans represent rich whites as well as racist and socially-backward middle class whites.  It is the party of reckless oil companies and executives with their corporate jets.  According to the myth, the Republican base exploits the supposedly poorer and weaker Democratic base.

In their mind, acquiring wealth is a zero-sum game, when one gains, another loses.

When people see the world this way, life is a constant struggle.  They are always losing, fighting to become the all-powerful class.  Their leaders (like Obama) are the vanguard of a new era of true equality.  Most importantly, this belief implies wealth is not created, but stays relatively static.

This is not the reality in America.  Class warfare in America is a myth.

If such a conflict existed, you would have clearly defined combatants, social classes pitted against one another fighting for a finite amount of wealth.  None of this is true.

There is also no struggle taking place.  The interconnectedness of the U.S. economy links the fortunes and opportunities of all classes.  Economic growth benefits all classes, creating greater opportunity for upward mobility and allowing successful and productive individuals to accumulate wealth.  Wealth accumulation creates capital for investment, a catalyst for job creation.  If class warfare were real, this would be impossible.

The Founding Fathers never conceived of a society that promised total equality in income or wealth, or any other economic measure.  In fact, they were immediately suspicious of any system that claimed to promote such an outcome.  Income equality requires coercion, the redistribution of wealth by law.  History has proved beyond a reasonable doubt, such a system does not lead to prosperity, let alone equality.  It leads to misery and failure, where the politically connected flourish and the rest suffer.

Individuals are not equal in talent, work ethic, or experience.  Some professions pay more than others because their product is worth more to society.  Some individuals do not work at all or work only part-time because of family obligations or other reasons.  In any case, no society will ever achieve income equality without coercion.

Most importantly, income is not a measure of success or happiness.  Some happily give up opportunities to earn higher income in exchange for shorter work weeks, flexible hours, or simply the opportunity to pursue a craft that makes them happy.  From this basic fact, we can conclude income or economic equality is NOT a desirable end.

The concept of class warfare is not sold on its merits or historical evidence.  It is sold through salesmanship and innuendo playing on one’s anger and resentment.  They show cartoons of fat robber barons smoking cigars made of hundred dollar bills.  Oil companies drill in our beautiful oceans for profits then laugh at the plight of the “little” people living along the coast of Louisiana.

But facts are stubborn things.

For every gallon of gas sold, oil companies may more in taxes than earn in profits.  The corporate jet tax loophole was part of the Democratically-supported Stimulus Package and amounts to a tiny $400 million a year (compared to the $1.6 trillion deficit of 2011).  Louisiana has among the lowest unemployment levels in the country and is growing faster than the rest of the country.  In fact, the biggest contributor to unemployment and suffering was President Obama’s moratorium on offshore drilling – an illegal and unnecessary act.

In fact, Americans need to understand a little more about the current economic situation before jumping to such false conclusions about the rich, middle class, and the poor.

According to economist Thomas Sowell, “income statistics are classic examples of numbers that can be arranged differently to suggest, not merely different, but totally opposite conclusions.”  In other words, politicians play with the numbers to support their position – no surprise there.  Some claims are completely false.  The media foolishly and irresponsibly repeats these fallacies without doing some basic research.

He cites a number of fallacies including: (1) except for the rich, incomes of Americans have stagnated for years; (2) the American middle class is growing smaller; and (3) over the years, the poor are getting poorer.

For one thing, the categories of “wealthy”, “middle class”, and “poor” are just that, categories.  They are not, as Sowell puts it, “flesh and blood human beings.” While the top one percent is earning a larger share of the nation’s income in recent years, the actual individuals that were the top one percent of earners in 1996 saw the income go down by 2005.  That’s right, the wealthiest one percent were earning less ten years later.  It is because the top earners of 1995 are not the same top earners of 2005.  Every year, this exclusive group changes.

More than half of the people who were in the top one percent in 1996 were not in the top one percent in 2005.  The group or “class” changes with time.  It is the same with the poor.  Most of the poor in 1996 saw their incomes rise by an average of 91 percent by 2005.  In other words, most of the poor in 1996 were no longer poor by 2005.

Democrats also love to cite economic statistics showing income stagnation and the small incomes of poor households.  However, the statistics often cited do not include transfer payments from the government including welfare, food stamps, social security, or any other source.  According to Sowell, the statistics cited account for only 22 percent of the actual economic resources available to the poor.  They may earn low amounts of income, but they have access to numerous sources of government funds.

Those living at or below the poverty rate, often live comfortable lifestyles compared to the poor of say twenty or thirty years ago.  Many have TV, cable, air conditioning, and an Xbox.

Given the fact that the poor in America live like kings compared to the poor in other countries, we should maybe question our concept of “the poor.”  Combined with the fact that few remain poor for very long, the problem becomes smaller and smaller.

These statistics show several problems with the concept of class warfare.  First, the members of each class changes from year-to-year.  There are no distinct economic classes in America.  Income levels, wealth, and work hours change so much, class warfare is impossible.

Second, the American standard of living is improving.   American families, even the poor, have seen their lifestyle improve over the years.  A “poor” American household is the equivalent of a middle class household from thirty years ago.

Third, the examples of excessive greed, irresponsibility and corruption are the exceptions, not the rule.  There is no evidence to suggest the richest income earners are obtaining fabulous wealth through exploitation or taking away from other Americans.

Do Americans agree?  Some pundits make a big deal of surveys showing only 60 percent of Americans say capitalism is better than socialism (Rasmussen), with 36 percent viewing socialism positively.  Although capitalism is the preferred economic system, its dominance is not as overwhelming as some would think.

This is due to the tremendous effort by progressives, socialists, and liberal Democrats to soil the term capitalism and turn it into a word describing those fat, cigar-smoking robber barons smoking hundred dollar bills.  According to Gallup 81 percent of Americans view free enterprise positively even though it is functionally the same as capitalism (viewed positively by 54 percent).  It is the word capitalism that has a questionable reputation among some Americans, not the concept of capitalism.

In recent speeches and op-eds, President Obama and the Democrats are perpetuating the myth of class warfare, in a shameless attempt to divide Americans and win votes.  It is a myth.  There is no class warfare taking place in America today, and the concept has never been accepted by Americans.  America is a country that has always embraced free enterprise, individual freedom, and equality in opportunity, not equality in outcome.

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