Lord knows I’m no fan of the moral bullying that’s going on from the likes of Laurie David on the subject of hybrids but buying a hybrid car doesn’t automatically make you an elitist. In some cases it’s a perfectly rational economic decision. For instance, in Northern Virginia, in plain violation of federal rules, a hybrid gets you access to the HOV lanes and slashes your journey times. I suppose that makes you an elitist in one sense, but it’s a much more old fashioned form. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to hybrid sales if the Virginia Assembly tackles the HOV-overcrowding problem by rescinding that privilege…

I think my favorite marker for elitist is anyone who says “We need a new Manhattan Project/ Apollo Program to tackle (insert worry du jour).” Sadly, that’s a form of elitist thinking that far too often creeps into the right as well.