Recruiting the Overeducated Middle

Political actors can deliberately target an 'overeducated middle' cohort—people in the median percentiles with inflated expectations from higher education and DEI socialization—by offering collectivist, comfort‑first narratives that absolve personal agency and rechannel resentment into political mobilization. Such messaging trades promises of care and entitlement for political loyalty and can shift urban and party coalitions quickly. — If accurate, this identifies a concrete demographic vector for populist and collectivist movement growth, with implications for campaign targeting, higher‑education policy, and the stability of civic norms.