Who Are the Elites?

Who do you think of when you hear the word “elites”? The term has come to mean “educated.” But 100 years ago, it was about economic power. And most people understood which party stood for the economic elites.

Franklin Roosevelt made this point very clearly in his 1936 acceptance speech for the Democratic Party nomination: “These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power.”

This idea of the economic elites was revived in 2011 by Occupy Wall Street. With the still brilliant slogan “We Are the 99%.” Unfortunately, Occupy sabotaged themselves as a movement for two reasons: They refused to engage in electoral politics. And they used an inefficient and undemocratic meeting process.

So how did the wealthy and powerful turn the term “elite” to their advantage? By using it to refer to people who had a post-high school education. By one definition, the divide is between people who shower before work and people who shower after work. Thereby creating a wedge between people like truck drivers and people like research scientists.

It is true that having a college education increases income. But not nearly enough to make any political power impact.

Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens was the title of a 2014 paper by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page that showed who really has power. It turns out that there is zero correlation between what the public wants and how Congress votes. Zero. Congressional voting is entirely correlated with the wishes of the 1% and the even more economically rarefied.

Meaning that a college educated professional earning at the 80% level (about $150,000 a year) has no more political influence than a truck driver. Basically, if you work for a living you don’t count. It is only the class who makes money from money
who counts.

George W. Bush won support based on the idea that he would be a fun guy to have a beer with. Forgetting about the fact that he is a recovering alcoholic who cannot drink. And forgetting that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and his few attempts at work ended in utter failure. Americans have some idea that they want a “regular” guy running things.

Would they apply the same standard to their surgeon or even to their barber? Don’t we usually want the one who is most skilled for the job? Why is it different when it comes to electing our most powerful officials?

One big problem with our American system of governance is that it costs an absurd amount of money to get elected. A typical U.S. senator must raise about $16,000 every day. That does not come from small donations. It comes from choosing a special interest for funding. The choice might be between the fossil fuel industry and a Wall Street hedge fund. Neither represents the public interest.

We were lucky a few times in history. Leaders like Roosevelt or Kennedy came from an economic elite, yet they used their wealth and power to help the public interest.

In the case of Trump, we are at the far opposite extreme. Every decision for him is about increasing his personal wealth and power. Yet he has successfully fooled tens of millions of followers into thinking that he is the one who will fight the elites.

He finds “red meat” issues like abortion and trans rights to enrage his evangelical Christian followers. He talks of bringing back jobs in coal because those are “manly” jobs.

Americans need to wake up and realize who are their allies. Our side can help by not provoking people unnecessarily with fringe issues. But in the end, it is up to voters to understand: Our side is every person who must go to work each day and who currently has no actual political power. We must demand political power. And use it not to destroy government. But to have government invest in a better future for the 99%.