Is Sarah Palin Working Class?

Conservatives tend to define white people as "working class" for reasons of cultural affect, i.e. they say, "you betcha", and own guns, are anti-abortion, seem to have conservative economic views, didn't go to an elite university, and are deeply religious.

"She [Palin] had earned the eternal enmity of the liberal elite for the affront of who she was: a working-class, pro-life woman with decidedly red-state mores." - Rich Lowry, King Features, July 7, 2009.

"Liberal elites and the media - which is a big part of the liberal elite class - and some Republicans hate Sarah Palin. They loathe her. It's not really political ... it's cultural. She's everything they don't like: middle-class/working-class, a woman who is pro-life and a serious Christian." - Fred Barnes, Fox News, July 3, 2009.

"Todd and I, heck, we’re going through that right now even as we speak, which may put me again kind of on the outs of those Washington elite who don’t like the idea of just an everyday working class American running for such an office." - Sarah Palin, Hugh Hewitt show, Sept. 30, 2008.

Conservatives tend to define white people as "working class" for reasons of cultural affect, i.e. they say, "you betcha", and own guns, are anti-abortion, seem to have conservative economic views, didn't go to an elite university, and are deeply religious. Thus, Sarah Palin is "working class", and "liberals" dislike her. But social scientists--political scientists, sociologists, economists--don't care about any of these factors. They argue basically over three definitions what defines the "working class": by education, income, or occupation (or some combination of the three). They don't care whether somebody went to Princeton, but, rather, whether they simply graduated from a four year college--any four year college--because they know, unlike Rick Lowry, that only 29% of Americans have, and thus anybody who has a bachelor's degree has a leg up, in terms of "human capital." They categorize jobs in terms of skill levels, rather than worrying about whether somebody annoys Paul Krugman, owns a gun, or reads the National Review or The Nation in their home. And, finally, they look at income--either relative to others, e.g. the bottom 1/3 of American households, the way Larry Bartels of Princeton does, widely considered to be the top American political scientist, or in absolute terms, i.e. the wealthier society gets, then the wealthier the "working class" would get too. So how does Palin do? On one level--the Sarah Palin of today--the question is a classic "no brainer:" Of course, she's not working class! She is: a) college educated; b) has a complex, skilled, white collar job: Governor of Alaska c) and that job pays her far more than the average American or Alaskan. Zero for three. Todd's a more interesting case--he makes a good income, has some skills, but he's only taken a few college classes, and he's a union guy--but let's leave him out of it. Now, maybe they mean: "Palin's from a 'working class background.'" Ok--that's a plausible usage. Look at my wife Maureen. In no way can she currently be labeled "working class." Again, by the three standards of education, occupation, and income, she is zero for three. But if you say, "Maureen comes from a working class background", you're making an accurate statement. Two parents with one high school education between them. Occupations of parents: clerical, and air conditions system repair man (union). Income--probably not bad with the union job, but certainly not fabulous. So, as a kid, Maureen was at least 2 out of 3 on the working class scale, with an income, maybe in the 40-50% percentile--reasonable to call her working class. Ok, let's look at Palin. Dad's a high school science teacher--that's not a "fantastic" job, but it's a white collar job, which requires a college education, and usually, with seniority, a high school teacher makes a better than average income plus decent benefits. Mom's clerical, so she may well have not gone to college, and probably didn't make a great salary. Hard to know what their family income was--maybe around what Maureen's parents were percentile wise. So: in fairness, I'd put Palin sort of in the gray area between the working class and the lower middle class, in terms of family background. The high school teacher dad probably lifts her barely into the middle class. It's close--but as for her background today as the well paid, college educated governor of Alaska (at least for another few weeks)--that's not close at all. No social scientist in America would call her "working class" just because she skins seals and says "you betcha" anymore than they would call George W Bush "working class" for wearing jeans with big belt buckles and speaking with lousy syntax. Ruy Teixiera has more to say about this issue in this article.