The “New Class”

Conservative commentator Michael Medved articulates a strong contradiction coming out of the Denver Democratic convention that I had felt, not yet verbalized. Democrats are full of stories of how they (Biden, Hillary, Michelle and brother, Barack, Virginia’s John Warner) rose from modest beginnings in the great American self-reliance, hard work, family values tradition. But then all say we need government to help everyone else. As Medved puts it, “these smug and preening politicians suggested that we’re brilliant and strong and special enough to make it to the top without government help, but most of the mere mortals who are watching us on TV will get nowhere at all unless we somehow use taxpayer money to assist them.”

Medved adds,

The contradictions emanating from the Democratic convention—praising individual stories of opportunity and upward mobility, while decrying the general disappearance of opportunity and mobility-- actually mirror the most puzzling anomaly of recent public opinion polling. By overwhelming majorities, Americans describe the state of the country as dire and desperate, while similarly lopsided majorities rate their own status as successful, satisfying and optimistic.

Medved attributes the contradiction to “media alarmists and complaints from politicians” that have convinced Americans “the nation at large teeters on the verge of collapse and destruction.”

I think these Democrats are sincere. Blessed with extraordinary talent that explains their success, they truly believe it’s government that will elevate the rest of us, who compared to them, indeed do “teeter on the verge of collapse and destruction.” These Democarts are the “vanguard of the proletariat,” Milovan Djilas’ “New Class." And as outdated as the Soviet Union.