Economic Strategist Paul Eckert: The Election Won't Heal the Divide That Matters Most, the One Inside the Middle Class

In "Healing Middle-Class Democracy," the author says neither side can deliver opportunity until the upper and lower middle class stop treating each other as adversaries.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- However the results are read, Paul Eckert says the election leaves one problem untouched: the split between the upper and lower halves of the American middle class.

Eckert, an economic strategist and author of, "Healing Middle-Class Democracy: Respecting Each Other, Cooperating Fairly, and Sharing Opportunity" divides working-age Americans into an upper middle class, roughly the top 20% (excluding the top 1%), and a lower middle class made up of the next 60%. Since the 1980s, he argues, economic growth has flowed disproportionately to the upper tier, while the lower tier has faced affordability pressure and insecurity.

"Elections change who holds office. They don't change the fact that the people who share an economic class now live in different economies and increasingly distrust each other," says Eckert.

He claims that the obstacle to expanding opportunity isn't a shortage of policy ideas. It's the absence of the cross-class political support any of them would need. "The middle class depends on democracy and democracy depends on the middle class," he writes.

Three principles Eckert says should guide what comes next:

• Respecting each other: Recognizing the contributions of prosperous Americans while acknowledging the unrealized potential of those further down the income ladder.
• Cooperating fairly: Drawing on political philosopher John Rawls to frame what a fair deal across the middle class looks like.
• Sharing opportunity: Investing in education and other opportunity-enhancing services, so those born into difficult circumstances have a real chance to move up.

"A united middle class protects what the successful have built and expands what everyone else can build. America can't favor one group over the other," Eckert says.

Eckert argues that investing in the lower middle class's potential could raise national productivity, thereby benefiting the entire economy.

About Paul Eckert
Paul Eckert is an economic strategist and policy expert whose career spans nonprofit leadership and public policy. Educated at both private and public institutions (Harvard University BA and Michigan State University PhD), Eckert transitioned mid-career from mental health administration in Detroit to business innovation policy in Washington, DC.. Eckert's prior literary works include writing for the stage and screen to show how a lack of political freedom and economic opportunity can lead to rage, extremism and war.

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