Oren Cass: This is What Elite Failure Looks Like

Interesting.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about e.g. manufacturing policy.

I don't pay enough attention to this general line of explanation, that elites are pursuing their own self-interest at the expense of the interests of ordinary people...and the nation.

I tend to think in terms of the philosophical failures of the postpostmodern progressive worldview. So I could be missing the real (or more important...or at least equally important) explanation.

I'll mention just one of Cass's points that I think is obviously right. Lots of people (me included) have pointed this out--it's not that hard to see. Goes like this: progressives think (or at least assert) that they are promoting democracy; we, on the other hand are [spit] populists... And populism is somehow presupposed to be bad. Well, that's bullshit. If the left weren't so good at the manipulation of language and opinion, centrists or centrist conservatives would win the vast majority of national elections. Cass and I agree that our "elites" have gone bad--or gone dumb. We also agree that "Mr. Trump is by no means an ideal tribune of the popular will, especially considering his own efforts to defy it after the 2020 presidential election." But we're stuck with a choice between him and, well, the other guys...who think that women have penises, America is made of racism, and the climatological End Is Nigh... Well, there I go focusing on the philosophical stuff, again...occupational hazard, I guess...