Why does the media, and the politicians, always talk about helping the suffering middle class?

The thing is that the politicians and the media want attention and support from people. The upper class has not time for such petty things. They can easily buy time on the media and influence politicians. Also, the lower class cannot give them the support and help they need. As the middle class has a large majority with resources such as income and such, the media and politicians will target them.

To put it in other words, the middle class are people who they're looking for: People with money, but not enough power to get in their way.

The middle class represent 90% of Americans. If you are a believer that America is a Consumer Driven Economy then the Middle Class accounts for 98% of the Economy. Unfortunately since 1980 and Pres R. Regan, the top 2% of American Wage Earners have gone from owning and controlling 70% of Wealth, to owning and controlling 97% of Wealth in 2008. Those Top 2% Wage Earners own 100% of the Republican Legislature today. Goodbye Democracy. Hello Fascism.

Advice from Obama's advisor Saul Alinsky, author of "Rules for Radicals":

"Don't scare the middle class."

These guys pay lip service to protecting the interests of the middle class because most of the votes in this country belong to people who self-identify as "middle class." And perception is more important than reality when it comes to selling people things - like political agendas.

Somewhere around the 1970s - 1980s, socialism and socialist politicians got a very bad name. Political parties such as the Democrats in the US and "old Labour" in the UK which spent a whole lot of time identifying with the poor began to lose popular support when the "poor" made up a relatively small portion of the electorate, and most of the country was more affluent - and resentful of the huge amount of the national budget (over a third of the budget) spent on this small portion of the population due to thundering waste and inefficiency in social programs.

In the US, the Democratic Leadership Conference, led by "moderate Democrats" such as Al Gore and Louisiana's John Breaux decided on a new strategy in which the Democratic Party publicly began to veer closer to the poltiical middle, and to the concerns of the self-identified middle class - a strategy which probably contributed to Bill Clinton's election after 12 years of Republican presidents.

Clinton began his administration by reneging on his middle-class platform, appointing several prominent left-wing/socialist political figures to high administrative posts, but eventually "triangulated" (his term) rightward after the stunning loss of Congress to the Republican Party in 1994. After that, Clinton's administration publicly began to express sensitivity to "middle class" values. Of course, the Republican Party, being pro-capitalist, was pro-middle-class from the beginning. Any party seeking political viability from the 1980s onward had to court the middle class or die.

Don't know where you got "the suffering middle class," though.

Most Americans think they're middle class. If you're targeting any group of people, go for the middle class.

Also, the lower class receives a lot of help. More could be done, but it wouldn't benefit the politician enough.

Take a look at Detroit Michigan it has had a Democratic mayor every year since 1961 and there you will find no middle class to speak of . You will however find that a high school age kid has a better chance of ending up in prison than with a diploma.

The lowest class are the welfare types that do not matter that much, except to try to keep them fed and a roof over their head. A safe place to live.

The middle class is the group that makes it possible to have classes of people, because they make rich people rich, and where most Americans reside, and often taxed proportionally higher to how much they make.

It is because the middle class gets hit the hardest financially for EVERYTHING! We aren't poor, so we don't get government aid, and we aren't rich, so we can't afford the taxes they take away from us to pay for the poor people. It is a vicious cycle. We have to struggle to get by because we aren't rich, and we have to pay for all the people who are on welfare for years. (I do appreciate the unemployment opportunities and disability opportunities of this country. We should not give someone money just because they are fat or because they weren't responsible and didn't take birth control and have kids they can't afford. There are good things this aid goes to though.)

It's politicians talking and guess what the bulk of the voters are made up of: the middle class.

It's that simple. If the poor were the biggest voting bloc, you'd hear about the suffering poor class.

Everyone not on welfare and not independently wealthy thinks of themselves as middle class. Calling someone lower class is an insult

I agree people working menial jobs deserve the same respect as their "fellow Americans" Everyone is not going to be a professional.The people doing these menial tasks and work hard at them deserve at the least health care.Greed will bring the down fall.Kindness and empathy is rare.