Intellectual Elite and the Liberals

[Anonymous]

OK. Recently, I keep seeing articles about the "intellectual elite" or "educated class" always being associated with "liberals." Some articles talk about how the "intellectual elite" are "out of touch" with the country; others comment that perhaps the government should promote vocation school instead of a college education, as college is "elitist," especially in this economy; and yet others note that universities are hotbeds for liberalism. But what baffles me is that these comments are coming from folks (right wing, to be sure) who have degrees from Yale, Harvard, and the like! Am I missing something? Seriously.

[Anonymous]

They do it because it helps drive a wedge between working class people and the political left. It diminishes the liberal point of view by associating it with an image that is not palatable to Joe Six Pack, who trusts tradition and religion and is suspicious of academics and intellectuals.

It is not a new thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They do it because it helps drive a wedge between working class people and the political left. It diminishes the liberal point of view by associating it with an image that is not palatable to Joe Six Pack, who trusts tradition and religion and is suspicious of academics and intellectuals.

It is not a new thing.

Oh, I agree. But what I don't understand is why the working class doesn't see the hypocrisy?

[Anonymous]

Why is this baffling? The intellectual elite IS out of touch. Like when Barack on the campaign trail in Iowa asked, "Can you believe what they're charging at Whole Foods for arugula these days?" Most people in Iowa (and the rest of the country) not only don't shop at Whole Foods but have probably never heard of arugula. They shop at Walmart and eat iceberg lettuce. Why should Joe Six Pack trust academics and intellectuals? What have they done for him lately but recommend the spending of trillions of dollars for a stimulus that resulted in more lost jobs??

Conservatives such as Charles Murray argue that government should stop promoting college education for the masses b/c most people simply aren't smart enough to benefit from it. That is a statistical fact. When you let everybody go to college, college becomes remedial high school, which too many state and local universities now are, and the degrees are worthless. I haven't read Murray's most recent book, but I think he argues that for many jobs, including white-collar jobs, a bachelor's degree is totally unnecessary, and it would make a lot more sense to develop some sort of certificate program to get people the skills they need for a lot less money. Of course some of us believe that a liberal arts education is a good in itself, but query whether that is what many of the kids graduating from lower tier institutions are getting.

[Anonymous]

PP here. I should have added that I think the reason you only hear about the "liberal elite" is that it is the hypocrisy of the liberals' faux populism that is so grating. And you only hear conservatives willing to be honest about the wastefulness of our current approach to higher education b/c liberals are too afraid of the truth that individuals are not all given equal gifts, intellectual or otherwise.

I am new to this forum, but I can see that it, like the rest of DC, is heavily biased, so have at me!

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Why is this baffling? The intellectual elite IS out of touch. Like when Barack on the campaign trail in Iowa asked, "Can you believe what they're charging at Whole Foods for arugula these days?"

Obama was not expecting them to know the price of arugula at Whole Foods. He was pointing out that arugula at Whole Foods costs a lot of money and Iowa farmers should consider growing it. If they replaced corn with arugula, they might not need all the corn subsidies. This is a perfect example of the original poster's point. An educated liberal makes a sensible suggestion and conservatives turn it into a joke and say the liberal is out of touch. In fact, the point was a good point, but I guess conservatives enjoy their tax dollars being used for corn subsidies.

Another example was when Obama pointed out that properly inflating your tires can save fuel. He was correct about that. The NASCAR website has the same advice. Yet, conservatives fell over themselves making fun of Obama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I should have added that I think the reason you only hear about the "liberal elite" is that it is the hypocrisy of the liberals' faux populism that is so grating. And you only hear conservatives willing to be honest about the wastefulness of our current approach to higher education b/c liberals are too afraid of the truth that individuals are not all given equal gifts, intellectual or otherwise.

I am new to this forum, but I can see that it, like the rest of DC, is heavily biased, so have at me!

Everybody is biased; it's just harder to see the biases that agree with yours.

We pointy-headed intellectuals have no difficulty noting that intellectual skills vary -- just ask us about GWB.

BTW, don't overlook the fact that sending as many kids as possible to college helps lower unemployment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I should have added that I think the reason you only hear about the "liberal elite" is that it is the hypocrisy of the liberals' faux populism that is so grating. And you only hear conservatives willing to be honest about the wastefulness of our current approach to higher education b/c liberals are too afraid of the truth that individuals are not all given equal gifts, intellectual or otherwise.

I am new to this forum, but I can see that it, like the rest of DC, is heavily biased, so have at me!

As a leftist, I quite agree that there are plenty of well-educated left-liberal folks who are fundamentally snobs about the working class. But there are plenty of conservatives who are quite the same way. Snobbery doesn't automatically adhere to a particular political party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is this baffling? The intellectual elite IS out of touch. Like when Barack on the campaign trail in Iowa asked, "Can you believe what they're charging at Whole Foods for arugula these days?" Most people in Iowa (and the rest of the country) not only don't shop at Whole Foods but have probably never heard of arugula. They shop at Walmart and eat iceberg lettuce. Why should Joe Six Pack trust academics and intellectuals? What have they done for him lately but recommend the spending of trillions of dollars for a stimulus that resulted in more lost jobs??

Conservatives such as Charles Murray argue that government should stop promoting college education for the masses b/c most people simply aren't smart enough to benefit from it. That is a statistical fact. When you let everybody go to college, college becomes remedial high school, which too many state and local universities now are, and the degrees are worthless. I haven't read Murray's most recent book, but I think he argues that for many jobs, including white-collar jobs, a bachelor's degree is totally unnecessary, and it would make a lot more sense to develop some sort of certificate program to get people the skills they need for a lot less money. Of course some of us believe that a liberal arts education is a good in itself, but query whether that is what many of the kids graduating from lower tier institutions are getting.

You don't get it. YOU are the intellectual elite. You can prove it yourself by providing the university degrees that you and your spouse hold.

As for arugula, I remember when I was a kid being amazed that George Bush (I) didn't know the price of a gallon of milk. George Bush also did not know how a scanner worked at the grocery store. Why is he not intellectual elite? did Yale not qualify? How about GWB? What school did he go to again, and do you think he can tell me what a pot roast costs? I can assure you that he does not. But he is considered folksy because - I dunno because his grades sucked due to the fact that he was there on the back of his family name?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this baffling? The intellectual elite IS out of touch. Like when Barack on the campaign trail in Iowa asked, "Can you believe what they're charging at Whole Foods for arugula these days?"

Obama was not expecting them to know the price of arugula at Whole Foods. He was pointing out that arugula at Whole Foods costs a lot of money and Iowa farmers should consider growing it. If they replaced corn with arugula, they might not need all the corn subsidies. This is a perfect example of the original poster's point. An educated liberal makes a sensible suggestion and conservatives turn it into a joke and say the liberal is out of touch. In fact, the point was a good point, but I guess conservatives enjoy their tax dollars being used for corn subsidies.

Another example was when Obama pointed out that properly inflating your tires can save fuel. He was correct about that. The NASCAR website has the same advice. Yet, conservatives fell over themselves making fun of Obama.

Carter was a peanut farmer that told people to turn down their thermostats and put on a sweater. What crazy ivory tower thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is this baffling? The intellectual elite IS out of touch. Like when Barack on the campaign trail in Iowa asked, "Can you believe what they're charging at Whole Foods for arugula these days?" Most people in Iowa (and the rest of the country) not only don't shop at Whole Foods but have probably never heard of arugula. They shop at Walmart and eat iceberg lettuce. Why should Joe Six Pack trust academics and intellectuals? What have they done for him lately but recommend the spending of trillions of dollars for a stimulus that resulted in more lost jobs??

Conservatives such as Charles Murray argue that government should stop promoting college education for the masses b/c most people simply aren't smart enough to benefit from it. That is a statistical fact. When you let everybody go to college, college becomes remedial high school, which too many state and local universities now are, and the degrees are worthless. I haven't read Murray's most recent book, but I think he argues that for many jobs, including white-collar jobs, a bachelor's degree is totally unnecessary, and it would make a lot more sense to develop some sort of certificate program to get people the skills they need for a lot less money. Of course some of us believe that a liberal arts education is a good in itself, but query whether that is what many of the kids graduating from lower tier institutions are getting.

Can you point me to the data?

Are you talking about Charles Murray, who happens to be a graduate of Harvard and MIT, who also wrote The Bell Curve?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this baffling? The intellectual elite IS out of touch. Like when Barack on the campaign trail in Iowa asked, "Can you believe what they're charging at Whole Foods for arugula these days?" Most people in Iowa (and the rest of the country) not only don't shop at Whole Foods but have probably never heard of arugula. They shop at Walmart and eat iceberg lettuce. Why should Joe Six Pack trust academics and intellectuals? What have they done for him lately but recommend the spending of trillions of dollars for a stimulus that resulted in more lost jobs??

Conservatives such as Charles Murray argue that government should stop promoting college education for the masses b/c most people simply aren't smart enough to benefit from it. That is a statistical fact. When you let everybody go to college, college becomes remedial high school, which too many state and local universities now are, and the degrees are worthless. I haven't read Murray's most recent book, but I think he argues that for many jobs, including white-collar jobs, a bachelor's degree is totally unnecessary, and it would make a lot more sense to develop some sort of certificate program to get people the skills they need for a lot less money. Of course some of us believe that a liberal arts education is a good in itself, but query whether that is what many of the kids graduating from lower tier institutions are getting.

You don't get it. YOU are the intellectual elite. You can prove it yourself by providing the university degrees that you and your spouse hold.

As for arugula, I remember when I was a kid being amazed that George Bush (I) didn't know the price of a gallon of milk. George Bush also did not know how a scanner worked at the grocery store. Why is he not intellectual elite? did Yale not qualify? How about GWB? What school did he go to again, and do you think he can tell me what a pot roast costs? I can assure you that he does not. But he is considered folksy because - I dunno because his grades sucked due to the fact that he was there on the back of his family name?

Or how about Barbara Bush musing on the aftermath of Katrina:
"Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them."

And you think LIBERAL "elites" are out of touch!?!?!?!? You must be joking.

[Anonymous]

I love this site for political conversation. Extremist smoke screens and generalizations never go unchallenged.

[Anonymous]

I agree that "liberal elites" is an attempt by conservatives to turn most people against Democrats - and against most rational ideas. Frankly, I think that all the polling and following of public opinion that politics does is horrendous - most people work normal jobs and might very well have strong opinions about various things, but if they are complicated things like how to actually bring down medical costs in our entire system or how to revive the economy - well, I do NOT think the guy with the GED has an equally good idea of what the best solution should be - no matter how loud he shouts at his Tea Party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love this site for political conversation. Extremist smoke screens and generalizations never go unchallenged.

Way to criticize generalizations by making a complete generalization. Good move. No one will ever confuse you with the intellectual elite now.