Them vs. U.S.: The Two Americas, The Elites and The Deplorables

A recent report shows just how deep the split between wealthy university graduates and the rest is.

From their views on climate change to their views on education, the detached top 1% of the US populace has voiced a range of opinions so dramatically different from the status quo that it could sink the country.

At a time when there is anxious talk of people being forced to eat bugs, embrace illegal immigrants, inhabit 15-minute cities and own nothing – all the while “being happy” – there is no better time to examine the mindset of the people who throw their hefty weight behind such bold initiatives, namely, the elite.

According to the Committee to Unleash Prosperity (CUP), the elite are defined as people who have at least one post-graduate degree, earn at least $150,000 annually, and live in high-population areas, primarily urban coastal zones, like New York City, Boston and Los Angeles. Members of this pampered tribe of overachievers are also likely to have graduated from one of America’s 12 prestigious Ivy League universities, which include Harvard, Cornell, Yale and Princeton, and are increasingly becoming bastions of woke ideology.

Them vs. U.S.

The Two Americas and How the Nation’s Elite Is Out of Touch with Average Americans

Executive Summary

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

‘The people who run America, or at least think they do, live in a bubble of their own construction. They’ve isolated themselves from everyday America’s realities to such a degree their views about what is and what should be happening in this country differ widely from the average American’s.

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An analysis of their thinking, conducted for the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, finds that on a variety of economic, social, and political issues, there exists a wide gap between how the top 1% – the Elites – think things should be and how the rest of America looks at them.

Elite thinking, as it’s termed, is under attack – and rightly so – for being out of step with the rest of the country.

Below, we highlight some of the profound attitud suspected: today, there are two Americas. One is wealthier, more highly educated, and attended the best schools. They put much more trust in big government “to do the right thing” and, by their own admission, benefit from more expansive government policies. They have also been hurt far less by the high inflation of the Biden presidency than those who live from paycheck to paycheck and are in the lower and middle classes.

inal differences between elites and average Americans:

•  In a time when most Americans have suffered a loss of real take-home pay, 74% of elites say they are financially better off today than in the past versus 20% of all Americans.
• Nearly six in ten say there is too much individual freedom in America – double the rate of all Americans.
• More than two-thirds (67%) favor rationing of vital energy and food sources to combat the threat of climate change.
•  In stark contrast to the rest of America, 70% of the Elites trust the government to “do the right thing most of the time.”
• Two-thirds (67%) say teachers and other educational professionals should decide what children are taught rather than letting parents decide. ‘
• Somewhere between half and two-thirds favor banning things like SUVs, gas stoves, air conditioning, and non-essential air travel to protect the environment.
•  About six of ten elites have a favorable opinion of the so-called talking professions—lawyers, lobbyists, politicians, and journalists.
• President Joe Biden enjoys an 84% job approval rating from this group – roughly twice as high as the general public.

The survey is a first-of-its-kind look at the views of the American Elite – defined as people having at least one post-graduate degree, earning at least $150,000 annually, and living in high-population density areas (more than 10,000 people per square mile in their zip code) – and compares them to what the average American thinks. The Elites represent 1% of the U.S. population but have an outsized voice on public policy in the United States, with their views seeming somehow to dominate the national conversation.

This may be because it is the Elites themselves who determine what that conversation will be about on campus, in the legacy media, and corporate board rooms. Not surprisingly, these people talk about politics far more than most Americans. The data show that nearly a third of them (30%) talk about politics daily almost every day. Just 9% of the voting public do. It is worth noting that members of the Elites who talk about politics daily have views that are even further removed from the opinions of the voting public.

This is true even when the Elites self-identify as Republicans. They typically may be more conservative than Elite Democrats but they still have attitudes and opinions that are far removed from those of the typical American voter. The Elite class – regardless of party – is an exclusive club that sees and experiences America through a different lens than ordinary Americans.

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These results confirm what people have longThis Grand Canyon-sized chasm between where every day Americans stand on the state of the country, expanding government power, draconian climate change solutions, and Joe Biden’s job performance may partly explain the Donald Trump phenomenon and his high approval ratings among working-class voters, who feel wholly connected with the rebellion against the arrogance of the ruling class Elites.

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