There is no doubt that CNN’s Lou Dobbs is a man of true conviction. I’ve surmised that much by watching TV’s self-proclaimed Champion of the Middle Class put his career on the line in quixotic defense of the “Birther” argument.

Seeking to insulate myself as much as possible from this spectacle of a debate, I’m not going to talk about Birthers today. Instead I’m going to talk about Lou Dobbs. Well, sort of.

First of all, I was surprised and not a little disgusted to learn Lou Dobbs still exists. That’s because I don’t watch cable news anymore, a big part of that being that cable news is still infested with people like Dobbs. Mass consumption news and opinion just make me ill.

But given the baffling stand Dobbs is making, I have become convinced that there is more to this old bulldog than Nielsen ratings and focus groups could have created. After all, if he were merely another sideshow hack whose rhetoric was carefully managed to appeal to the largest target demographic possible, then why would he so insistently alienate his audience (keeping in mind that the average CNN viewer is pretty damned different from his counterpart at Fox News)?

In particular, this episode has made me take a second look at one of Lou Dobbs’ favorite rhetorical devices. I’ve already mentioned it once in this post, but you might not have noticed. I’m talking about Dobbs’ use of the term “Middle Class.”

He uses it plenty. Take the title of his 2006 book, War on the Middle Class (which I linked out of respect, not because I want you to buy it), or the segment he has frequently run on his program of the same name. What I’m interested in, however, is what he uses it for.

“The Middle Class” is a phrase that has practically been stretched beyond utility in the American vernacular, especially when it comes to self-identification. If you lie somewhere between homelessness and royalty, you would have grounds to deem yourself a member of this club. You’re lucky, too, because in America, membership happens to carry almost universally positive connotations.

The breadth and the pretty gleam of the words “Middle Class” make them a very basic, very versatile tool for anyone seeking to influence public opinion without actually saying anything at all. This is how I’ve always assumed Lou Dobbs meant to use them—in a fundamentally populist sense. Middle Class. Ordinary folks. You. Watching the TV. Right now.

In other words, to fit in among Dobbs’ rhetorical Middle Class you should probably fit the following criteria:

1)      You can afford a television and can watch his show.

2)      You speak English and can understand him.

3)      You aren’t in a position to buy Lou Dobbs or any other Time Warner asset.

So it’s a term that could satisfy just about anyone, and at the same time should be drained of specific meaning to a rational observer. Dobbs and others use such language to pitch insubstantial, overbroad arguments to their viewers, and to avoid alienating anyone in the process—in short, to paint themselves as arbiters of the “average Joe,” while leaving the precise definition of “average Joe” up to Joe himself. A handsome way to win sponsors.

At least that was the conclusion I’d reached, until recently when Lou Dobbs actually started to turn away a good part of his audience. It’s not that Lou made any explicit reference to class in challenging Barack Obama’s “natural born” citizenship. Instead, it was his decision to go Alamo on the Birther issue that convinced me to reconsider in retrospect his and others’ ideology in toto.

Maybe there really is a “Middle Class” in America. Certainly number-crunchers think so; Alan Greenspan was concerned about protecting the cohort’s fortunes during his tenure. But how about in the public consciousness? How do we decide where we fit in, and who fits in where?

In the coming weeks I’m going to dig deeper into these questions. In particular, I’m interested in hearing people’s own opinions and stories about the determinants of class and where they see themselves in the broader scheme of things. Do you see yourself as middle class? In what class were you raised? Do you see ‘class conflict’ (or class itself) as real?

That means you, average (well, probably not) Joe. Feel free to blitz me your comments, thoughts, etc. or leave them here. I’d love to hear what you think.