"I have always found the middle class slightly annoying."

One of the many people whom we didn't elect president last month is the poet Sparrow, who runs pretty much every time. The current issue of The Sun--do you subscribe to The Sun? If not, stop reading and go do so, right now--includes excerpts from this year's campaign journal. (Sparrow ran this time around as the candidate of the Sudoku For All Party.) Here's a sample:

There's been a lot of discussion in this election about saving the middle class. Let me confide in you, my electorate, that I have always found the middle class slightly annoying. I am running to protect the hobos, stevedores (I'm not sure exactly what a stevedore is, but I love the word), opera singers, prostitutes, people who dress up as rabbits, and experts on Chaucer. The middle class, with their comfortable couches and macaroni casseroles, can probably take care of themselves.

I like this entry because, as a Steve, I too am fascinated by the word "stevedore." Furthermore, the broad coalition he seeks to protect includes two different vocations I briefly considered for myself. (I'm going to make you guess.)

More importantly: seriously, I think it's pretty gross when every time a politician not named John Edwards wants to talk about poor people, his/her people do a global find/replace and make it about the middle class instead. Now, talking about how rising inequality is squeezing the middle class out of existence is another thing. But then you're still talking about poor people (i.e., in the general sense--both the poor and the low-income in policy parlance--people who are struggling to make ends meet even w/o any expectation of middle-class comforts).

In summary: read The Sun, stand up for the poor, and Sparrow's funny. That's my philosophy.