It begins

We're all welfare queens now

When it's economists blabbing about statistics, it's "scary"; when it's the formerly middle class lining up at food banks, it's scary:

Once a crutch for the most needy, food pantries have responded to the deepening recession by opening their doors to what one pantry organizer described as “the next layer of people,” a rapidly expanding group of child-care workers, nurse’s aides, real estate agents and secretaries who are facing a financial crisis for the first time. Over all, demand at food banks across the country increased by 30 percent in 2008 from the previous year, according to a survey by Feeding America, which distributes more than two billion pounds of food every year.

...

And amid the million-dollar houses of Marin County, Calif., a pantry at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center last month changed its policy to allow people to stop by once a week instead of every other week, since there are so many new faces in line alongside the regulars.

“We’re seeing people who work at banks, for software firms, for marketing firms, and they’re all losing their jobs,” said Dave Cort, the executive director. “Here we are in big, fancy Marin County, but we have people who are standing in line with their eyes wide open, thinking, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m here.’ ”

I think these sorts of stories and images will start to have a noticeable impact on the national dialog--I think you're going to start to see (even more of) a swelling of support for Obama's big government interventions, and maybe even a second stimulus. And I don't mean to be cynical, but I actually think a lot of it will have to do with the fact that the people requiring handouts are white, suburban, middle-class-looking people--and that's just not supposed to happen in America. I'm not accusing Americans at large at being racist or anything, it's just that I think it's human nature to have a more visceral and empathetic reaction to something happening to one's in-group.