The United States has a wealthy, partisan elite class that’s not only immune from and numb to the problems of their countrymen, but enormously confident in and willing to impose unpopular policies on them.
This is a recipe for disaster.
The problem is starkly illustrated in a new survey Scott Rasmussen conducted on behalf of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, which divided respondents between elites (people with at least one postgraduate degree, earning more than $150,000, living in ZIP codes where the population density exceeds 10,000 per square mile) and the general public.
Rasmussen also recorded the responses of a subset of elites — “super elites,“ if you will — who graduated from a few prestigious private universities, including members of the Ivy League, Duke, Stanford and Northwestern.
It’s near impossible to behold the results and not acknowledge they’re indicative of a fundamental disconnect between two Americas.
That disconnect should be of as much concern to proud aristocrats as it is to the peasantry.
It should come as no surprise that between America and its upper crust, a much higher proportion of the latter (73%) consider themselves Democrats and approve of Joe Biden’s performance as president (84%).
But there are less surface-level — and more telling — findings.
The rich are indeed getting richer, say the rich.
Seventy-four percent of the elites and 88% of super elites report their personal finances are on the upswing.
And the bulk of those who remain say they’re either unsure or they’re getting neither better nor worse.
A negligible proportion of respondents said their pocketbooks are getting lighter.
Compare that to Americans more generally, and it’s hard to believe the two groups are living in the same country.
While 40% of Americans say their financial situation is worsening, just 20% say it’s improving.
This might seem intuitive; it stands to reason that those who are making more money would be more inclined to think well of their financial standing.
But it is still striking that the class disproportionately represented in positions of influence does not feel the same, very real economic pains the rest of America does.
Why? Because that makes them less likely to take steps to alleviate that pain and even more likely to worsen it in pursuit of their ideological objectives.
Government control
This truth was borne out by the three groups’ answers to other questions.
A stunning 77% of elites and 89% of super elites support the “strict rationing of meat, gas, and electricity.”
Seventy-two percent and 81% would ban the use of gas-powered cars.
Fifty-five percent and 70% would prevent Americans from engaging in “non-essential” air travel.
Oh, and 47% and 55% believe the government affords Americans “too much freedom.”
Predictably, the rest of the country would be appalled to hear what this group would do with absolute power; the percentage that would agree to any of those measures lies between 16% and 25%.
What’s perhaps most troubling of all, however, is elites’ staggering surplus of self-confidence in government, a halfway decent proxy for themselves.
Seventy percent of elites (double the number of average Americans) and 89% of super elites said they trust the government to do the right thing.
“Out of touch” barely describes this attitude. Arrogant is more accurate.
If America is to avoid a tailspin into this toxic feedback loop, its elites will need to step outside their bubble, stop conforming in an effort to blend in with their myopic peers and start addressing the legitimate grievances of their fellow Americans.
Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite.