Elites: What are they good for?

“Elitist” has become one of the dirtiest words in the American lexicon, said Peter Baker in The New York Times. The core of the recent populist uprising against Washington has been the perception that Ivy League–educated intellectuals, bankers, and snobs are running the country, heedless of how their decisions affect average people. President Obama played right into this narrative when he recently said that “facts and science’’ are losing out, because Americans don’t “always think clearly when we’re scared.” The president’s remarks reflect what the elite believes—that most voters “aren’t very smart,” said Michael Knox Beran in National Review Online. If that’s the case, of course, “it makes sense to deprive them of as much liberty of action and electoral leverage as practicable.” Average people now see through this condescension, which is why they’ve turned against Obama and his “mandarins.”

It’s unpopular to say it, “but there is a role for elites in public life,” said Ezra Klein in ­WashingtonPost.com. “Just like I want knowledgeable CEOs running companies and knowl­edge­able doctors performing surgeries, I want knowledgeable legislators crafting public policy.” The problems we face are very complex, with no easy solutions. But instead of helping guide us toward informed consensus, “the elites in the Republican Party” have abdicated responsibility, “preferring to pander to the desire for free tax cuts and the hostility to Al Gore than make tough and potentially unpopular decisions.” This is why the country’s in such big trouble.

I’d find that argument “a lot more compelling if the elites didn’t have such a terrible track record,” said Jim Manzi in TheAmericanScene.com. The smart guys gave us the financial meltdown, the bloated budget deficits, and other dysfunctions, so it’s hardly clear that “the benefits of expertise outweigh the benefits” of popular wisdom. I don’t doubt that “some expertise is useful in the people crafting our laws,” said Conor Friedersdorf in Forbes.com, but what kind of expertise is best? “A degree from the Kennedy School of Government? Or 10 years spent as the guy who oversees compliance with federal regulations at a midsized factory?” Too many of the best and the brightest take the fast track from the Ivy League to the corridors of power, leaving them with no grasp of how mandates from Washington “will play out at the practical level.” Credentials and wisdom aren’t the same thing.

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