INCOME INEQUALITY AND POVERTY “Over the past few years, the key phrase for Democrats has been ’income inequality.’ The relentlessly widening gap between wealthy Americans and the rest-accelerated by the Great Recession and the not-so-great recovery-is at the heart of [Bernie] Sanders's campaign, animates many of Hillary Clinton's policies, and would make [Elizabeth] Warren an instant contender were she to enter the race. But ‘inequality’ is a word that Republicans don't like to use. [Mitt] Romney during his Presidential campaign, characterized ‘inequality’ as a code word: ’I think it's about envy I think it's about class warfare.’ “In 2012, [Peter] Wehner co-authored an essay in NationalAffairs, titled "How to Think About Inequality." He concludes: The problem in America today is therefore not wealth but rather persistent poverty. And the right way to deal with income inquality is not by punishing the rich, but by doing more to help the poor become richer, chiefly by increasing their social capital. This means not simply strengthening the bonds of trust and mutual respect among citizens, but also equipping Americans - especially the poor - with the skills, values, and habits that will allow them to succeed. “In other words, the way to think about inequality is by looking down, not up. It's not the wealth amassed at the top but, rather, the lack of "’skills, values, and habits’ at the bottom that accounts for the widening income gap. Oddly, Wehner's essay barely mentions the economic struggles of the middle class. A close look at the three middle quintiles of income, where Americans with an education, a job, and a spouse can be found treading water or sinking, would have forced him to reconsider the notion that a lack of ‘social capita1’ - as opposed to just capital - explains the entire problem.” Packer, George, “The Republican Class War,” pp: 26-34 (31), The New Yorker, November 9, 2015.