The umpteenth time I read some conservative columnist blaming excess immigration on “elites” who want cheap child care or discounts on dusky gardeners, I decided to actually think about what was meant.
This is s critical problem at present, yet I don't think it has to be. Those of us who believe in free markets and maximal individual liberty have more work to do in distinguishing between free markets and the conditions in the United States over the past 36 years. They are by no means the same.
The New Right's use of the term *elites* is justifiable in that, 1, it refers to the leaders of these groups and not all the individuals in these realms of activity, and 2, all these groups have benefited from America's regnant form of statism. Electricians, bookkeepers, construction workers, and tens of millions of others, by contrast, are harmed by it. We should acknowledge that. MAGA populists are certainly anti-state as regards the *current* state. Their rhetoric can indeed be taken as wanting to use the power of the state themselves, and some are pretty clear about that. I don't see the movement as whole as statist at heart, however. We need to do a better job of showing unity as regards present conditions. An ally is an ally, not a spouse.
Like you, I dislike pessimism and envy. That is not the essence of MAGA, in my view. As to the economy, for example, it is incontestable that the official numbers indicate economic growth even over the past couple of decades. However, people do have a right to find this worrisome: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SIPOVGINIUSA. Increasing economic inequality can be explained away, but it doesn't convince those who are living it.
I sympathize with the populist right and try every day to demonstrate that true market freedom is best for all of us.
As usual Sam, you are wise and I am no doubt intemperate.
On elites, I agree that the term might be justifiable used in a certain way. What I particularly object to is conservatives who should know better using it in a manipulative and propagandistic way, to inflame rather than inform.
All these groups, as you say, have benefited from statism, but does that make them in any way elite? Or even particularly powerful? Intentionally or not (and mostly not) they are grifters, but grifters are rarely part of an elite. On the contrary they tend to be marginal, desperately clinging to an inadequate living. Some do grift on a grand scale which is why six (?) of America's richest counties are in the DC metro.
I resoundingly agree that "Increasing economic inequality can be explained away, but it doesn't convince those who are living it." Telling people they are wrong about their own lives is a huge mistake--the Biden folk erred big time in denying inflation.
But the inflation thing was also the first time in more than decade we saw a lot of real outrage from middle America on the economy. I think a lot of phony outrage is coming from the MAGA intellectuals themselves. I can't remember where I saw it (maybe from Heartland, or maybe Steve Moore's group) but someone just did a big study on whether Americans still think they are or will be doing better than their parents. The answer was 'a little bit less so than in the past but still very much 'yes''.
We don't want to "explain away" but we do want to explain. But Cass and company are so wrong, I can hardly help doubt their good faith. They seem relentlessly political, even demagogic in a way the conservative intellectual movement I grew up in was not.
When I worked at National Review I never, not once, heard any editor suggest we should take some position to stir up the base, or heaven forbid, cater to our readers. WFB thought of NR as a church, not an election campaign. These days much of what comes from the MAGA intellectuals and, since the election, the conservatives who defend Trump even when they know he is wrong is just propaganda and too much of it vicious and false.
Hmmm. I am intemperate, but grateful for your excellent intervention!!!!
You are quite correct, of course, to observe that there are grifters on the right as well as the left, and all should be regarded with disdain. Those who stand for good sense and acceptance of reality must stand together despite any differences in details, and we should reject all temptations to stir up emotional responses to real problems.
Inequality is going to rise in any country that has a dynamic, growing economy and that doesn’t control its borders. The nation’s lowest quintile is constantly being “refilled” as people with little more than the clothes on their backs immigrate.
Of course, the reason they come here is because the country has a dynamic, growing economy - something that Trump’s policies will likely end.
This is s critical problem at present, yet I don't think it has to be. Those of us who believe in free markets and maximal individual liberty have more work to do in distinguishing between free markets and the conditions in the United States over the past 36 years. They are by no means the same.
The New Right's use of the term *elites* is justifiable in that, 1, it refers to the leaders of these groups and not all the individuals in these realms of activity, and 2, all these groups have benefited from America's regnant form of statism. Electricians, bookkeepers, construction workers, and tens of millions of others, by contrast, are harmed by it. We should acknowledge that. MAGA populists are certainly anti-state as regards the *current* state. Their rhetoric can indeed be taken as wanting to use the power of the state themselves, and some are pretty clear about that. I don't see the movement as whole as statist at heart, however. We need to do a better job of showing unity as regards present conditions. An ally is an ally, not a spouse.
Like you, I dislike pessimism and envy. That is not the essence of MAGA, in my view. As to the economy, for example, it is incontestable that the official numbers indicate economic growth even over the past couple of decades. However, people do have a right to find this worrisome: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SIPOVGINIUSA. Increasing economic inequality can be explained away, but it doesn't convince those who are living it.
I sympathize with the populist right and try every day to demonstrate that true market freedom is best for all of us.
As usual Sam, you are wise and I am no doubt intemperate.
On elites, I agree that the term might be justifiable used in a certain way. What I particularly object to is conservatives who should know better using it in a manipulative and propagandistic way, to inflame rather than inform.
All these groups, as you say, have benefited from statism, but does that make them in any way elite? Or even particularly powerful? Intentionally or not (and mostly not) they are grifters, but grifters are rarely part of an elite. On the contrary they tend to be marginal, desperately clinging to an inadequate living. Some do grift on a grand scale which is why six (?) of America's richest counties are in the DC metro.
I resoundingly agree that "Increasing economic inequality can be explained away, but it doesn't convince those who are living it." Telling people they are wrong about their own lives is a huge mistake--the Biden folk erred big time in denying inflation.
But the inflation thing was also the first time in more than decade we saw a lot of real outrage from middle America on the economy. I think a lot of phony outrage is coming from the MAGA intellectuals themselves. I can't remember where I saw it (maybe from Heartland, or maybe Steve Moore's group) but someone just did a big study on whether Americans still think they are or will be doing better than their parents. The answer was 'a little bit less so than in the past but still very much 'yes''.
We don't want to "explain away" but we do want to explain. But Cass and company are so wrong, I can hardly help doubt their good faith. They seem relentlessly political, even demagogic in a way the conservative intellectual movement I grew up in was not.
When I worked at National Review I never, not once, heard any editor suggest we should take some position to stir up the base, or heaven forbid, cater to our readers. WFB thought of NR as a church, not an election campaign. These days much of what comes from the MAGA intellectuals and, since the election, the conservatives who defend Trump even when they know he is wrong is just propaganda and too much of it vicious and false.
Hmmm. I am intemperate, but grateful for your excellent intervention!!!!
You are quite correct, of course, to observe that there are grifters on the right as well as the left, and all should be regarded with disdain. Those who stand for good sense and acceptance of reality must stand together despite any differences in details, and we should reject all temptations to stir up emotional responses to real problems.
Inequality is going to rise in any country that has a dynamic, growing economy and that doesn’t control its borders. The nation’s lowest quintile is constantly being “refilled” as people with little more than the clothes on their backs immigrate.
Of course, the reason they come here is because the country has a dynamic, growing economy - something that Trump’s policies will likely end.