Given the current climate of the presidential race, Hillary Clinton has seemingly focused less on appealing to her potential voter base and more on sending Donald Trump packing; especially in light of the recent lewd audio recording tainting his campaign. Last night’s debate consisted more of back-and-forth personal attacks than policy substance, and given the hectic environment, there was little room for Clinton to recite the narrative of her middle class values that she did in the first debate. Thanks to Wikileaks however, news about her rhetoric appealing to the middle class has remained in the headlines.
This recent email leak features part of a speech that she gave at Goldman Sachs, and appears newsworthy because she admits to being “far removed” from the middle class lifestyle in which she grew up. Some of the text is highlighted by the Wikileaks source, however the highlight ends before the sentence ends by saying, “but I haven’t forgotten it.” For this reason, I question the newsworthiness of this rhetoric that some sources have elaborated upon. The truth is that Clinton remains the favorite choice for moderate, middle-class voters, and the argument that she is too removed from them does not achieve much of an effect. Personally, I think that there is grounds for the average middle-class American to look to Clinton as evidence that just because you currently find yourself in the middle class, doesn’t mean you will never be able to “climb the ladder” and rise out of it. No one will ever be able to take that away from Clinton despite all of her other shortcomings, and that is why she is able to manipulate middle-class rhetoric so well.