The Arrogance of the Elite

America needs less democracy to avoid tyranny, says Andrew Sullivan in New York magazine. America “suffers from too much democracy,” agrees Richard Cohen in the Washington Post.

Anyone who supports Donald Trump is a traitor, writes Charles Pierce in Esquire. James Traub in Foreign Policy calls Trump and Brexit supporters “ignorance masses” and says it’s time for the “elites to rise up” against them, or at least to “un-delude them,” perhaps in re-education camps.

These elites act like crybabies who don’t get their way. They use bad names for anyone who disagrees with them. They say they know best and anyone who disagrees must not (as Traub puts it) “believe in reason, expertise, and the lessons of history.”

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Who are the elites who say these things? They aren’t just the one percent of intelligentsia who live in Manhattan or inside the Beltway. Really, most of them are among the 30 percent of people who make up the upper-middle class: namely those with college educations who earn around $90,000 a year or more per two-person family.

These people are totally out of touch with the realities faced by the other 70 percent. How many people with college educations number among their real friends someone who is working class? How many even talk with working class people other than restaurant servers, retail clerks, and similar workers? How many understand that the policies that benefit the college-educated upper-middle-class often harm the working class?

How many realize that the anger among working-class Trump supporters is not a symptom of racism but of resentment towards an economy designed for the elite and that creates enormous obstacles for everyone else? Certainly not those who are advocating for less democracy or claiming that everyone else is deluded or a traitor. If anyone is a threat to American values, it is those who believe in less democracy whenever the majority disagrees with them.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

9 Responses to The Arrogance of the Elite

  1. FantasiaWHT says:

    Have you not noticed that checks and balances are being systematically eroded?

  2. LazyReader says:

    “Power to the People” it’s a powerful, bold and inspiring statement. But do the people that yell it the loudest really understand what they’re shouting? Every 4 years they willingly choose to give more and more power to the government. Democracy is not a system of government, it’s a characteristic of government. Democratic socialism….national socialism are separated by pundits, but they’re the same. A Democracy is mob rule, which is why America is actually a representative republic, NOT a democracy. We have democratic principles incorporated. Democratic is an adjective, not an noun. A representative republic protects the rights of a citizen regardless of the types or amount of citizens of a given type exist. Thus you aim to protect the rights of a potential minority from the decisions of the majority. For example, Hitler’s domestic, socialist policies; Trigger warning: they’re eerily similar to what American Democrats tout today. Larger government expenditure, taxing 60,70,80,90%, nationalized healthcare, disarm the populace, blaming the bulk of the nations problems on a group comprising less than 1% of the total population. Mentally conjuring the notion or idea of that group meeting a justifiable and vicious ending. The Founders were extremely knowledgeable about the issue of democracy and feared a democracy as much as a monarchy. They understood that the only entity that can take away the people’s freedom is their own government, either by being too weak to protect them from external threats or by becoming too powerful and taking over every aspect of life.

  3. aloysius9999 says:

    America just has too many checks and balances designed to prevent such a thing.

    One of the checks is the Federal court system. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has mastered the art of endlessly stalling lawsuits.

    limit a lawsuit to one attorney, all documents to 30 pages, and all decisions within 30 days.

    Why does the federal government need 10 or 12 attorneys in the room for the Judicial Watch Clinton FOIA depositions?

  4. CapitalistRoader says:

    America just has too many checks and balances designed to prevent such a thing.America just has too many checks and balances designed to prevent such a thing.

    I hope that’s true. What I fear is the Dem’s keeping the executive branch forever, like they have in Chicago, or getting and keeping the legislative branch forever, like they have in California. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I’m afraid the only thing we can hope for is to change the equally corrupt parties every four or eight years. Otherwise the entire country will turn into the corrupt craphole that is Chicago, or the dirt people/cloud people distopia that is California.

  5. prk166 says:

    Hillary is as bigger liar than Trump, no? She after all has even lied to Congress repeatedly. Even better she’s committed treason. What a peach eh?

    As for science, the democrats are full of anti-science folks too. They want to deny that a fertilized embryo is human life. And they have Al Gore & his cronies constantly concocting tall tales about how an acorn that fell from the sky means the world is doomed and shutting down any inquiry into their claims.

    Science is a verb,not a noun. It’s a method of inquiry. Trying to shut down a healthy debate is the essence of anti-science.

    Brexit is even more enteraining. If being scientific is important the first thing the author should be looking at is the word, Brexit. There’s a robust body of research on how words influence people and academics in that area pointing out that regardless of facts, a portion of people were bound to be swayed by the word.

    As for the other facts, they refuse to acknowledge how Germany’s Export driven economy is even more unsustainable than China’s. They pay no head to the large current account deficit the UK has with Germany. And they ignore that most of the UK’s trade will continue on just well with being in the EU as not in it all. Of course with the added bonus of having wiggle room to negotiate trade terms with the Germans that discourage them from flooding their market with German goods.

  6. bennett says:

    Lord have mercy! Randall O’Toole lambasting others for complaining about the outcomes of democratic processes and demonizing opponents is just too rich. Yes, calling opponents traitors and delusional is terrible and something that elites don’t have a monopoly on (did you watch any of the RNC last night???).

    It’s not that I disagree with the overall sentiment here, but for Christ’s sake… Hello pot, meet kettle.

  7. Sandy Teal says:

    I don’t quite understand how we ended up with two of the worst candidates ever for President. I still haven’t read any great ideas that explained it either. The junk writing about “anger” is just reading too much into frustration.

    The question about the Democrats is how does the party only have 2 candidates in 12 years, such that Hillary just walks into the nomination without a serious challenge. Where is all the energy and ambition in the Democrats? It seems like the Democrats have just settled into holding a coalition together to keep the government benefits flowing. For this blog, the big question is how can environmentalists just stand by and let Democratic presidents ignore global warming if it is such an existential issue? The enviros waited in line behind the stimulus, then healthcare, then racial issues, and never got anything from Obama.

    The Republicans at least had a slew of choices, There is truly a frustration with how PC has perverted public discussions, but that doesn’t lead all the way to Trump. Now the Republicans are dumping global free trade in the greatest change in a political party in 50 years.

    Very strange politics, and I don’t have the answer. Nor have I read a good explanation anywhere either.

  8. Tombdragon says:

    Trump is PERFECT! He is saying what many of us are thinking, and about the pressures of government regulation that have directly eroded our standard of living, and economic security. The “solutions” presented by the status quo measurably hurt, and don’t help anybody except to expand government.

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