"... (E)veryone should contribute to our national recovery, including, of course, the most affluent among us ... The better course is to stop sending the wealthy benefits they do not need and stop providing them so many tax preferences that distort our economy and do little or nothing to foster growth."

The words of some radical class warrior? An earnest tract from the Occupy Wall Street crowd?

No, that was Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels delivering the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech last week.

In fairness, it should be noted that those comments came in the context of a call for fundamental changes to the Medicare and Social Security programs.

But context also requires noting that Daniels directed the Office of Management and Budget during President George W. Bush's first term and championed the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which drastically widened the income gap between the super rich in America and everyone else.

That irony aside, it seems that Republicans have noticed that the issue of class conflict is resonating with the American people.

That's precisely what a new survey, conducted last month by the Pew Research Center, has found. Sixty-six percent of Americans said they believe there are strong or very strong conflicts between rich and poor in this country. That's 40 percent higher than two years ago.

The perception holds no matter how you crunch the numbers. Among Democrats, 73 percent characterize the conflict between rich and poor in America as strong or very strong; 55 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of independents say the same thing.

So do similar percentages of whites, blacks and Hispanics, adults in four age brackets from 18 to 65 and older, people earning more than $75,000 per year, people earning less than $20,000 per year, college graduates, high school graduates and people without a high school diploma.

In other words, the belief that there are serious conflicts between rich and poor in America is now held by Americans of all ages, all income levels, all education levels, all racial backgrounds and all political and ideological persuasions.

When the Occupy movement began to take shape last year, some observers seemed perplexed by its steadfast refusal to present a detailed agenda, a list of demands or an outline of essential changes.

But as groups emerged in city after city across the country, sometimes clashing with elected officials and law enforcement, protesters held to that approach. They were content to call attention to the drastic disparities of wealth and income that have come to characterize American society, and let the facts speak for themselves.

The Pew survey indicates that the message got through. People may see it as an explanation for what they and their families have experienced first-hand over the last 30 years. It may help them understand why so many people are having such a hard time recovering from the crushing effects of the economic crisis of 2007-2008.

When a prominent Republican like Mitch Daniels incorporates the language of class conflict into a major national speech, it's an acknowledgement that the message has power. The candidates who figure out how to direct that power to their advantage may well be the ones who prevail in November.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH