The Anxieties of the Ruling Class

It has become popular on the Right to talk about liberals or Democrats as the “hate-America” crowd. Not only is this unfair and untrue, it misses the point. The problem with liberals and Democrats, or rather with many members of the liberal and Democratic elite, is not that they hate America, but that they have low “national morale.” That is, they have lost their respect for their country, and thus part of their self-respect.

Many Americans have noticed that our country has been increasingly divided into “the people” and some other, much smaller group. Different names have been given to the smaller group—such as “elite,” or “intellectuals,” or “the new class”—but the cleavage itself is almost universally recognized. Though social theorists may disagree about the precise makeup of the elite class, it clearly includes virtually all the people Americans look to for the articulation of ideas.

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Max Singer

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It has become popular on the Right to talk about liberals or Democrats as the “hate-America” crowd. Not only is this unfair and untrue, it misses the point. The problem with liberals and Democrats, or rather with many members of the liberal and Democratic elite, is not that they hate America, but that they have low “national morale.” That is, they have lost their respect for their country, and thus part of their self-respect.

Many Americans have noticed that our country has been increasingly divided into “the people” and some other, much smaller group. Different names have been given to the smaller group—such as “elite,” or “intellectuals,” or “the new class”—but the cleavage itself is almost universally recognized. Though social theorists may disagree about the precise makeup of the elite class, it clearly includes virtually all the people Americans look to for the articulation of ideas.