Liberal elite
Encyclopedia
Liberal elite is a political
stigma
used to describe affluent, politically left-leaning people. It is commonly used with the pejorative
implication that the people who claim to support the rights of the working class
are themselves members of the upper class
, or upper middle class
, and are therefore out of touch with the real needs of the people they claim to support and protect. The phrase "liberal elite" should not be confused with the term "elite" as used by writers such as Vilfredo Pareto
and C. Wright Mills
. They use the term to mean those who exercise the most political power.
The label is essentially a rhetorical device with flexible meaning depending on where in the English speaking world it is used. As a polemical term it has been used to refer to political positions as diverse as secularism, environmentalism, feminism, and other positions associated with the left.
The originating usage in the United States is applied with various changes to other English speaking countries and by extension to left-leaning elites in other countries.
" has been in use since 1989. For example, Australian left-wing "true believers" leveled it at supporters of the failed republic referendum of 1999
(where the vote was split not along conventional party lines but very much along socio-economic divides, with the rich overwhelmingly supporting the change while the less well-off were opposed – a superficially bizarre pattern for a non-economic issue). Staunch Australian right-wingers, on the other hand, level it at those who support such things as government funding for the art
s, free tertiary education, and the ABC
– all causes which are described by critics as "middle-class welfare".
The ad hominem
argument was particularly used by the Howard Government
against members of the Australian Labor Party
.
The term "liberal" has the opposite connotation in mainstream media to that which it enjoys in the US. It is associated with the Liberal Party, a conservative and powerful party whose name is based on their objective to liberalise the market economy within Australia.
an culture
, especially the culture of France
and foreign films. Thus the phrase liberal elite suggests that liberals are unpatriotic, because they like other cultures and are disdainful of American life and culture. Columnist Dave Barry
drew attention to these stereotypes when he commented, "Do we truly believe that ALL red-state residents are ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR
-obsessed cousin-marrying roadkill-eating tobacco-juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic redneck
s; or that ALL blue-state residents are godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts"? South Park's creators Trey Parker
and Matt Stone
use the stereotypes attributed to the liberal elite for comic effect. In the episode Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls
, they portrayed members of Hollywood's movie industry as being hypocritical and self-serving and having an affinity for tofu
, steamed celery
, couscous
and the products of organic
markets. In the episode Smug Alert, they portray San Francisco liberals as haughty and condescending towards people less progressive than themselves and poking fun at the large number of wine and cheese stores in San Francisco. The film Team America: World Police
includes jokes about the liberal elite, implying that they live in their own protected niche and are thus unaware of the dangers of internationalism. The film lampooned several Hollywood celebrities, including Susan Sarandon
, Liv Tyler
etc for their left-wing political views. Michael Moore
, who is famous for having left-wing viewpoints whilst making large amounts of money from his books and films, is also lampooned in the film.
During the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Republican candidate John McCain
likened Democratic candidate Barack Obama
's celebrity appeal to that of pop star Britney Spears
and socialite Paris Hilton
.
A political ad from the right wing organization Club for Growth
attacked the Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean
by portraying him as part of the liberal elite: "Howard Dean should take his tax
-hiking, government-expanding, latte
-drinking, sushi
-eating, Volvo
-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing
, Hollywood-loving, left-wing
freak show
back to Vermont
, where it belongs."
Those Americans who equate intellectual pursuits and careers with elitism often point out American intellectuals, most of whom are upper middle class not upper class
, are primarily liberal. Fully 72% of professors identify themselves as liberals. At Ivy League
Universities, an even larger majority, 87% of professors identified themselves as liberals. Those with post-graduate degrees are increasingly Democratic.
In Thomas Frank
's What's the Matter with Kansas?
the idea of a liberal elite is compared to George Orwell's character Emmanuel Goldstein
in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four
, the fictional hated enemy of the people. Frank argues that anger directed towards this perceived enemy is what keeps the conservative coalition together.
, the then prime minister who was in the midst of a re-election campaign that he would ultimately lose, famously described a working class woman named Gillian Duffy, who had expressed concern at the effect large rates of Eastern European immigration was having on her area, as a bigot.
Sacha Baron-Cohen is perhaps the United Kingdom's most famous liberal elitist. He grew up in a wealthy Jewish family in the Hampstead
area of London, an area described by Tom Paulin
as having liberal zionistshttp://www.monabaker.com/pMachine/more.php?id=A383_0_1_0_M. Baron-Cohen subsequently attended the University of Cambridge, studying history and writing his dissertation about the Jewish contribution to the American civil rights movementhttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Sacha_BaronCohen.html. The majority of his Borat and Brüno
films show him portraying negatively Americans (often from the Deep South
) who have politically incorrect viewpoints, particularly when it comes to race politics.
Both Brown and Baron-Cohen were famously active in the anti-apartheid movementhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/camerons-freebie-to-apartheid-south-africa-1674367.htmlhttp://www.racialicious.com/2006/11/08/sacha-baron-cohen-anti-racist-activist/, a popular cause in top universities around the world until its end in 1994.
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
stigma
Social stigma
Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
used to describe affluent, politically left-leaning people. It is commonly used with the pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
implication that the people who claim to support the rights of the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
are themselves members of the upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
, or upper middle class
Upper middle class
The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term "lower middle class", which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle...
, and are therefore out of touch with the real needs of the people they claim to support and protect. The phrase "liberal elite" should not be confused with the term "elite" as used by writers such as Vilfredo Pareto
Vilfredo Pareto
Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto , born Wilfried Fritz Pareto, was an Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist and philosopher. He made several important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices....
and C. Wright Mills
C. Wright Mills
Charles Wright Mills was an American sociologist. Mills is best remembered for his 1959 book The Sociological Imagination in which he lays out a view of the proper relationship between biography and history, theory and method in sociological scholarship...
. They use the term to mean those who exercise the most political power.
The label is essentially a rhetorical device with flexible meaning depending on where in the English speaking world it is used. As a polemical term it has been used to refer to political positions as diverse as secularism, environmentalism, feminism, and other positions associated with the left.
The originating usage in the United States is applied with various changes to other English speaking countries and by extension to left-leaning elites in other countries.
Australia
In Australia, the term "Chardonnay socialistChardonnay socialist
Chardonnay socialist is a derogatory Australasian term used to describe those on the political left with comfortable middle or upper-class incomes, tertiary education, and a penchant for the finer things in life, Chardonnay being a form of white wine for example.It is similar in thrust to the North...
" has been in use since 1989. For example, Australian left-wing "true believers" leveled it at supporters of the failed republic referendum of 1999
Australian republic referendum, 1999
The Australian republic referendum held on 6 November 1999 was a two-question referendum to amend the Constitution of Australia. The first question asked whether Australia should become a republic with a President appointed by Parliament following a bi-partisan appointment model which had...
(where the vote was split not along conventional party lines but very much along socio-economic divides, with the rich overwhelmingly supporting the change while the less well-off were opposed – a superficially bizarre pattern for a non-economic issue). Staunch Australian right-wingers, on the other hand, level it at those who support such things as government funding for the art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
s, free tertiary education, and the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
– all causes which are described by critics as "middle-class welfare".
The ad hominem
Ad hominem
An ad hominem , short for argumentum ad hominem, is an attempt to negate the truth of a claim by pointing out a negative characteristic or belief of the person supporting it...
argument was particularly used by the Howard Government
Howard Government
The Howard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard. It was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition, which won a majority of seats in the Australian House of Representatives at four successive elections. The Howard Government...
against members of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
.
The term "liberal" has the opposite connotation in mainstream media to that which it enjoys in the US. It is associated with the Liberal Party, a conservative and powerful party whose name is based on their objective to liberalise the market economy within Australia.
United States
In the United States, the lifestyle of the liberal elite is often considered noteworthy. The term "liberal elite" often carries the implicit connotation that the individuals described by the term are hypocritical. For instance, they may support busing and oppose school choice and vouchers, but send their children to private or parochial schools. The liberal elite are often characterized as having an affinity for EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, especially the culture of France
Culture of France
The culture of France and of the French people has been shaped by geography, by profound historical events, and by foreign and internal forces and groups. France, and in particular Paris, has played an important role as a center of high culture and of decorative arts since the seventeenth...
and foreign films. Thus the phrase liberal elite suggests that liberals are unpatriotic, because they like other cultures and are disdainful of American life and culture. Columnist Dave Barry
Dave Barry
David "Dave" Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and columnist, who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for The Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comedic novels.-Biography:Barry was born in Armonk, New York,...
drew attention to these stereotypes when he commented, "Do we truly believe that ALL red-state residents are ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
-obsessed cousin-marrying roadkill-eating tobacco-juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic redneck
Redneck
Redneck is a historically derogatory slang term used in reference to poor, uneducated white farmers, especially from the southern United States...
s; or that ALL blue-state residents are godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts"? South Park's creators Trey Parker
Trey Parker
Trey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...
and Matt Stone
Matt Stone
Matthew Richard "Matt" Stone is an American screenwriter, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of South Park along with creative partner and best friend, Trey Parker....
use the stereotypes attributed to the liberal elite for comic effect. In the episode Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls
Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls
"Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls" is the ninth episode of the second season of the animated television series South Park, and the 22nd episode of the series overall. "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls" originally aired in the United States on August 19, 1998 on Comedy Central.-Plot synopsis:Park City, Utah...
, they portrayed members of Hollywood's movie industry as being hypocritical and self-serving and having an affinity for tofu
Tofu
is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
, steamed celery
Celery
Apium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac , depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten: celery refers to the former and celeriac to the latter. Apium graveolens grows to 1 m tall...
, couscous
Couscous
Couscous is a Berber dish of semolina traditionally served with a meat or vegetable stew spooned over it. Couscous is a staple food throughout Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.-Etymology:...
and the products of organic
Organic food
Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.For the...
markets. In the episode Smug Alert, they portray San Francisco liberals as haughty and condescending towards people less progressive than themselves and poking fun at the large number of wine and cheese stores in San Francisco. The film Team America: World Police
Team America: World Police
Team America: World Police, often referred to as simply Team America, is a 2004 action comedy film written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Pam Brady and directed by Parker, all of whom are also known for the popular animated television series South Park...
includes jokes about the liberal elite, implying that they live in their own protected niche and are thus unaware of the dangers of internationalism. The film lampooned several Hollywood celebrities, including Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
, Liv Tyler
Liv Tyler
Liv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994...
etc for their left-wing political views. Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
, who is famous for having left-wing viewpoints whilst making large amounts of money from his books and films, is also lampooned in the film.
During the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Republican candidate John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
likened Democratic candidate Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's celebrity appeal to that of pop star Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
and socialite Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
.
A political ad from the right wing organization Club for Growth
Club for Growth
The Club for Growth is a politically conservative 527 organization active in the United States of America, with an agenda focussed on taxation and other economic issues, and with an affiliated political action committee . The Club advocates lower taxes, limited government, less government spending,...
attacked the Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean
Howard Dean
Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...
by portraying him as part of the liberal elite: "Howard Dean should take his tax
Taxation in the United States
The United States is a federal republic with autonomous state and local governments. Taxes are imposed in the United States at each of these levels. These include taxes on income, property, sales, imports, payroll, estates and gifts, as well as various fees.Taxes are imposed on net income of...
-hiking, government-expanding, latte
Latte
A latte is a coffee drink made with espresso and steamed milk. Variants include replacing the coffee with another drink base such as masala chai, mate or matcha...
-drinking, sushi
Sushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
-eating, Volvo
Volvo
AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...
-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing
Body piercing
Body piercing, a form of body modification, is the practice of puncturing or cutting a part of the human body, creating an opening in which jewelry may be worn. The word piercing can refer to the act or practice of body piercing, or to an opening in the body created by this act or practice...
, Hollywood-loving, left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
freak show
Freak show
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics, people with other extraordinary diseases and...
back to Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, where it belongs."
Those Americans who equate intellectual pursuits and careers with elitism often point out American intellectuals, most of whom are upper middle class not upper class
American upper class
See: millionaire for more details-Millionaires:See also: MillionairesHouseholds with net worths of $1 million or more may be identified as members of the upper-most socio-economic demographic, depending on the class model used...
, are primarily liberal. Fully 72% of professors identify themselves as liberals. At Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
Universities, an even larger majority, 87% of professors identified themselves as liberals. Those with post-graduate degrees are increasingly Democratic.
In Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank is an American author, journalist and columnist for Harper's Magazine. He is a former columnist for the Wall Street Journal, authoring "The Tilting Yard" from 2008 to 2010....
's What's the Matter with Kansas?
What's the Matter with Kansas?
What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America is a book by American journalist and historian Thomas Frank, which explores the rise of populist anti-elitist Conservatism in the United States, centering on the experience of Kansas, Frank's native state...
the idea of a liberal elite is compared to George Orwell's character Emmanuel Goldstein
Emmanuel Goldstein
Emmanuel Goldstein is a character in George Orwell's classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is the number one enemy of the people according to Big Brother and the Party, who heads a mysterious and possibly fictitious anti-party organization called The Brotherhood...
in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
, the fictional hated enemy of the people. Frank argues that anger directed towards this perceived enemy is what keeps the conservative coalition together.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has several public figures who famously have liberal elitist tendencies. In the Bigotgate scandal, Gordon BrownGordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
, the then prime minister who was in the midst of a re-election campaign that he would ultimately lose, famously described a working class woman named Gillian Duffy, who had expressed concern at the effect large rates of Eastern European immigration was having on her area, as a bigot.
Sacha Baron-Cohen is perhaps the United Kingdom's most famous liberal elitist. He grew up in a wealthy Jewish family in the Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
area of London, an area described by Tom Paulin
Tom Paulin
Thomas Neilson Paulin is a Northern Irish poet and critic of film, music and literature. He lives in England, where he is the GM Young Lecturer in English Literature at Hertford College, Oxford.- Life and work :...
as having liberal zionistshttp://www.monabaker.com/pMachine/more.php?id=A383_0_1_0_M. Baron-Cohen subsequently attended the University of Cambridge, studying history and writing his dissertation about the Jewish contribution to the American civil rights movementhttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Sacha_BaronCohen.html. The majority of his Borat and Brüno
Bruno
Bruno is a male given name. It is derived from the Germanic word brun meaning "brown". It is also one of the most frequent Italian surnames. It also occurs very frequently in continental Europe and parts of Brazil as a given name for men and boys...
films show him portraying negatively Americans (often from the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
) who have politically incorrect viewpoints, particularly when it comes to race politics.
Both Brown and Baron-Cohen were famously active in the anti-apartheid movementhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/camerons-freebie-to-apartheid-south-africa-1674367.htmlhttp://www.racialicious.com/2006/11/08/sacha-baron-cohen-anti-racist-activist/, a popular cause in top universities around the world until its end in 1994.
New Class
The concept of 'liberal elites' is a product of 'new class' discourse, which emerged in the United States in the 1970s. Like the 'new class', liberal elites are often understood to be university/college educated professionals, often considered to wield immense cultural power in the media, academy, and school system. The label suggests that any such cultural power is used to gain influence in politics beyond the group's numerical significance. Further, any such influence tends to be characterised as (a) advocating the interests of 'fringe' groups to the detriment of 'mainstream' opinion; and (b) pursuing political goals that are self-serving and/or frivolous, with the effect of restricting public choice.See also
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Culture war The culture war in American usage is a metaphor used to claim that political conflict is based on sets of conflicting cultural values. The term frequently implies a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal... East Coast liberal The term East Coast liberal is a pejorative stereotype encountered in American political culture.The image associated with East-Coast liberalism is that of a white-collar young urban professional, usually a white male and Protestant, who is college-educated and cosmopolitan.Traditionally, East... Gauche caviar Gauche caviar is a pejorative French term to describe someone who claims to be a socialist while living in a way that contradicts socialist values... |
Hollywood Left The Hollywood Left is a term used by commentator Bill O'Reilly to describe the politically active liberal or left-wing segment of the Hollywood-based entertainment industry.- See also :*Hollywood blacklist*Liberal elite*Culture war*Limousine liberal... Left Coast Left Coast is a political expression that implies that the West Coast of the United States leans politically to the left or the expression can refer to states that lean politically left... Left-wing politics In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society... Limousine liberal Limousine liberal is a pejorative American political term used to illustrate perceived hypocrisy by a political liberal of upper class or upper middle class status; including calls for the use of mass transit while frequently using limousines or private jets, claiming environmental consciousness... |
New class The "New Class" model, as a theory of new social groups in post-industrial societies, gained ascendency during the 1970s as social and political scientists noted how "New Class" groups were shaped by post-material orientations in their pursuit of political and social goals... Massachusetts liberal Eastern Massachusetts liberal is a phrase in American politics which is generally used as a political epithet by Republicans against Democrats who are from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was most significantly used in the 1988 presidential race by Vice-president George H.W. Bush against... Radical chic Radical chic is a term coined by journalist Tom Wolfe in his 1970 essay "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's," to describe the adoption and promotion of radical political causes by celebrities, socialites, and high society... San Francisco values "San Francisco values" is a term often used pejoratively and as an ad hominem phrase to refer to cultural, social and moral attributes associated with the city of San Francisco, California's liberal politics and pluralist culture... |
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Further reading
- Larry M. Bartels (2006), "What's the Matter with What's the Matter with Kansas?What's the Matter with Kansas?What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America is a book by American journalist and historian Thomas Frank, which explores the rise of populist anti-elitist Conservatism in the United States, centering on the experience of Kansas, Frank's native state...
", Quarterly Journal of Political Science: Vol. 1:No. 2, pp 201–226.
External links
- The Economist, The Fear Myth http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3400772
- Joshua Kurlantzick, The New Yorker (2004) "Pardon?" http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/040419ta_talk_kurlantzick?040419ta_talk_kurlantzick