My instinctive read of that term is "the (presumably socio-economic) class people aspire to be", actually -- essentially just another way of saying "the people we think are living the American Dream(tm) and being ungrateful about it". Like, it's a thing with right-wing Americans to talk about poor people like they're either people who haven't yet succeeded in becoming millionaires, or who are too lazy to "aspire" towards success.
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Date: 2019-01-11 08:55 pm (UTC)