Significantly more Americans see ‘very strong’ or ‘strong’ class conflict between the rich and poor, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. The results show that Americans think that conflicts between the rich and poor are stronger than immigrant and native born, black and white and young and old.

In 2009, 47 percent of respondents said there were ‘very strong’ or ‘strong’ conflicts between the rich and poor. In 2011, 66 percent saw the same, possibly signaling that the ‘We are the 99 percent’ rhetoric of Occupy Wall Street has had an impact. The ongoing economic recession also may have magnified class differences as income inequality has risen, continuing a trend occurring in American society since at least the 1970s.

Democrats in general — and President Barack Obama in specific — have also spoken out about income inequality. ‘Now, this kind of inequality — a level that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression — hurts us all,’ Obama said in a December speech in Kansas. The GOP front-runner for the presidency, Mitt Romney, has in turn charged Obama with promulgating the ‘politics of envy’ and said that discussions over the distribution of wealth were ‘fine’ to talk […]