United States Politics: ∆τ_i*ε*φ*m_i<0 where ε=4 and φ=0.25

[Potato]

This is behind a paywall, so I'll try to copy/paste some highlights. 

https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/america-is-engaged-in-a-rich-white-civil-war-20250214-p5lc63

NYT link https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/opinion/trump-populism-elites.html

The simplest answer is that Trump really seems not to give a crap about the working class. Trump is not a populist. He campaigns as a populist, but once he has power, he is the betrayer of populism.

What’s going on here is not a working-class revolt against the elites. All I see is one section of the educated elite going after another section of the educated elite. This is like a civil war in a fancy prep school in which the sleazy kids are going after the pretentious kids.

In 2018, the organisation More in Common released the Hidden Tribes survey. It found that two groups were driving American politics, which it called progressive activists and devoted conservatives. These groups are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, but they have a lot in common. They are the richest of all the groups in the More in Common typology. They are the whitest of all the groups. They are among the best educated of all the groups. When I wrote a column about the bitter feud between these two elite groups, I headlined it “The Rich White Civil War”. That headline still accurately describes what we’re seeing.

How did we get in this mess?

Well, starting about 60 years ago, a group variously labelled the bobos or the creative class began establishing hegemony over commanding institutions of American life – the universities, the media, the foundations, publishing and entertainment.

There are two things you should know about this class. First, like most groups, its members dislike intellectual diversity and tend to impose a stifling progressive orthodoxy in the places they dominate. Second, more than most groups, they see themselves as the moral uplifters of society, on everything from environmental attitudes to sexual ethics, and enjoy preaching in order to enlighten their morally backward countrymen.

Progressives exercise hegemony over these institutions but not total control. Every year, for example, elite colleges admit a few conservative students. They often have one or two token conservatives on the faculty, whom they can roll out for panel discussions. These rare conservatives tend to form dissident communities with one another. In the 1980s there was The Dartmouth Review, which gave us Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D’Souza. Later, The Princeton Tory gave us Pete Hegseth. Today there is the Claremont Review of Books, one of the intellectual mouthpieces of Trumpism.

There is something about being a rare conservative in a sea of progressive insularity that tends to drive people crazy. I get it. When I worked at National Review and on The Wall Street Journal editorial page, some of my New York neighbours would give me the Hitler salute when I got on the elevator. It used to make me want to join the John Birch Society just to spite them.

The right-wing elite college dissidents often feel besieged, embattled. They are often both merry pranksters and also cranky, bitter and oppositional. They catastrophise. They look out on those hellscapes of Hanover, New Hampshire; Princeton, New Jersey; and Claremont, California, and decide that Western civilisation is in ruins. Above all else, they seek social revenge on those who condescend to them.

And here’s the crucial fact about many of them. Many of them are not pro-conservative; they are anti-left. There’s a big difference. They do not focus on building and reforming the civic institutions that conservatives believe are crucial to any healthy society. They focus on tearing down whatever institutions the left occupies.