When the Elite Fights the Elite

Janan Ganesh: “Over the past decade, in both America and Britain, the most interesting class war has been within the elite, not against it from below. The typical belligerent is a prosperous urbanite who relishes the outrage of more liberal peers. But they are peers. Having conservative politics in a left-leaning over-class doesn’t mark you out as a stout yeoman of the heartland. It is not ‘punching up’ if you are as rich or richer than the people you are punching. Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have the reality-bending gumption to pull off this dangerous game. That isn’t true of most people who play it.”

“Some friendly advice, then, to the rightwing hedgies, the Palm Beach courtiers, the tabloid scribblers, the weekend golfers who vote Trump or Johnson to upset the more liberal kind of rich person: hope that your efforts to stir up anger at the elite aren’t successful. Because if the mob comes, it won’t know or care to distinguish between different groupuscules of the one percent.”