A frustrated force

Opinion: February 20, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

By Barbara Shelly

Kansas City Star

The Walmart mom does it all. She raises kids, works a job or two, runs Girl Scout troops, cares for elderly relatives and walks the family dog. Without her — regardless of where she shops — entire households, schools and neighborhoods would go to pieces.

Also, she sways elections.

After gaining notice as an important swing voter in the 2008 presidential election, she joined in the Republican rout in the 2010 mid-term, then edged back to the Democratic side last November.

So why doesn’t she feel more empowered?

Ten Kansas City area mothers participated last week in a Walmart-sponsored focus group with Public Opinion Strategies. In a candid discussion, they portrayed themselves as worried about their futures and frustrated by a political establishment from which they feel ignored and disconnected.

Older participants

“The system is so broken,” said Beth, who at age 50 was one of the older participants. “You can’t stay in office without playing the game, and if you play the game you forget what people’s lives are like.”

Courtney, a 34-year-old mom with two small children, was more blunt.

“Cut their pay,” she said. “Let them live like we do. Paycheck to paycheck.”

Intrigued by the political clout attributed to its shoppers, Walmart has been surveying mothers since 2010.

The women who participated in a focus group in Kansas City the morning after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address all have at least one child 18 years old or younger at home. They follow the news, but don’t identify strongly with either political party.

Listening in on the conversation, it was clear to me the anxiety created by the economic downturn has not left this group, even though some of them listed household incomes above $75,000.

At least two said a spouse was out of work. Raises the last few years, if they’d received any, had been negligible. All were acutely aware of the decrease in paychecks caused by the rise of payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare.

Fuel price hikes

The recent sharp increase in fuel prices has created additional financial havoc. When asked how they planned to spend the $100 they would receive for participating in the focus group, the response was emphatic. No splurges for this group. The mini windfall would go toward groceries and gasoline.

Their feelings about the president and his speech seemed mostly favorable. His call for universal pre-kindergarten education was especially well received.

These moms are a formidable force.

Barbara Shelly is a columnist for the Kansas City Star.Distributed by MCT Information Services.