The elite and the masses

Charles Murray’s “Coming Apart”

Republicans claim that the US is threatened by a decadent cultural elite that corrupts regular Americans, who love God, country and traditional values. The cultural elites live more conservative, traditionalist lives than the cultural masses.

Democrats claim the US is threatened by the financial elite, who hog society’s resources. But that’s a distraction. The real social gap is between the top 20 percent and the lower 30 percent. The liberal members of the upper tribe latch onto this top 1 percent narrative because it excuses them from the central role they themselves are playing in driving inequality and unfairness.