Barack Obama’s economic speech Wednesday at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., was titled “A Better Bargain for the Middle Class.” In the course of the speech, Obama used the phrase “middle class” 20 times. The message was inescapable: the president and Democrats care about the middle class.

The Galesburg speech was just the latest in a very long list of examples of Obama and his allies stressing that their policies will be good for the middle class. Maybe they’re wrong. Maybe it’s just lip service. But the president and his fellow Democrats make a point to say the phrase “middle class” over and over and over and over and over. They send a message through sheer repetition.