“The man who has money is king”: Discursive constructions of affluent domination of US politics in letters-to-the-editor, 1948–2016

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scholarly and popular publications alike are rife with accusations and evidence of the wealthy’s outsized influence on US politics. The rich can vote more easily, have greater sway over policy, and comprise a disproportionate share of Congress. Yet few are asking what citizens have to say about both the real and perceived power of the rich. Scholars do not yet fully understand how the people process these realities in public fora or build communal interpretations of wealth-driven political power. This paper takes an historical perspective, asking how people across a period of increasing economic polarization and campaign spending made sense of democracy without equality and what they proposed to do about it. To that end, I conduct a fantasy theme analysis of nearly 400 letters-to-the-editor from 12 newspapers spanning the 18 US presidential elections from 1948 to 2016. This analysis contributes to a conceptual model of how citizens felt politics worked in the United States across an era of increasing inequalities. I argue the fantasy theme of affluent domination is one element of a rhetorical vision pitting the interests of the working poor against the wealthy for control of a political system that to some looks remarkably little like democracy.