By Christopher Harper
For more than 50 years, I worked in two elite professions, currently known as the “talking professions” of university professors, journalists, lawyers, actors, and lobbyists.
Only in the past few years have I realized how dangerous these professions and elites can be.
Stephen Moore, the co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, just published a study entitled “Them vs. U.S.” examining how America’s cultural elites are hopelessly out of touch with ordinary Americans. The study defined a member of the elite as someone with at least one postgraduate degree, a $150,000-plus annual income, a high-density urban residence, and Ivy League school attendance.
“First, there are the cultural and overeducated snobs — the kind of people who religiously read The New York Times, drive electric vehicles, wear Harvard or Yale sweaters, and have never even heard of NASCAR or eaten at Popeyes or ridden a John Deere tractor,” Moore wrote recently. “And then there is normal Main Street America. The snobs thumb their collective noses at the unrefined working-class Americans. The elites believe they are intellectually, culturally, and morally superior to the working class and rural America. You won’t see too many elites at a Trump rally with 30,000 people.”
Following are some of the findings:
Financial Well-being: Nearly three-quarters of the elites surveyed believe they are better off financially than when Joe Biden entered the White House. Less than 20% of ordinary Americans feel the same way.
Individual Freedom: Elites are three times more likely than all Americans to say there is too much personal freedom in the country. Almost half of the elites and 6 of 10 Ivy Leaguers say there is too much freedom.
Climate Change: 72% of the elites—including 81% of the elites who graduated from the top universities—favor banning gas cars. Majorities of elites would also ban gas stoves, nonessential air travel, SUVs, and private air conditioning.
Education: Most elites think that teachers’ unions and school administrators should control school agendas. Most mainstream Americans think that parents should make these decisions.
“Crime, illegal immigration, inflation, fentanyl, and factory closings aren’t keeping the elite up at night because in their cocoons, they don’t encounter these problems on a daily basis the way so many Americans do today. Not too many Main Street Americans are losing sleep about climate change or LGBTQ issues,” Moore wrote.
Although the study did not analyze recent media accounts, it is readily apparent that the left is ramping up counterattacks. For example, MSNBC launched an attack on those who consider the United States as a country founded as a Christian nation. These people are called “Christian nationalists.”
Also, Paul Krugman, arguably the worst prize-winning economist in history, wrote recently in DaTimes that “white rural rage is arguably the single greatest threat facing American democracy.”
Having lived in big cities and small towns, I think the Committee to Unleash Prosperity’s poll provides a far better understanding of the divide in the United States.
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