Democracy as an affluent status signal

Polling shows richer, older, and more educated voters disproportionately list 'democracy' as a top concern while poorer and younger voters prioritize cost of living. Treating institutional threats as politically salient therefore risks functioning as a class marker, shaping who political appeals reach and which grievances get prioritized. — If 'caring about democracy' operates as a class‑coded signal, parties and advocates may misread partisan coalitions and lose lower‑income voters by foregrounding abstract institutional frames over material concerns.