Sunday Smiles – HotAir
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Are Americans finally waking up to some of the scams that have been sold to us?

I think the answer is complicated. I think what we are seeing is a breakdown of the near-consensus that reigned in the postwar era, driven by a faith in the competence and judgment of the political elite that was earned during World War II and the boom that followed. 





It’s easy to overstate the strength of that consensus. It was strained mightily in the late 60s and 70s, but the Reagan and Clinton years, however contentious they were at times, reinforced the sense that, for the most part, our elite was doing a pretty good job of keeping the country moving in the right direction. 

Even people who expressed skepticism toward our elites unconsciously accepted most of the premises that drove our zeitgeist. More and more people went to college, trusted institutions such as the CDC, FEMA, the FBI, and, while not assuming the news was unbiased, at least assumed that it was not driven by hoaxes. 

These days, we live in parallel cultures, which are diverging. A growing cohort has concluded that their interests, and to a great extent, the country’s, are at odds with the elite whose loyalties are transnational and hostile to the American ideal. 

And, because the elite has a disproportionate influence on the laws, rules, regulations, and distribution of resources in our society, faith in our institutions has plummeted. 

For instance, even if you believe that the people creating COVID policies were generally well-intentioned, it was obvious that the way they made policy and sold it was predicated on the idea that Americans are too stubborn and stupid to be allowed to have any say. 

We could all feel the contempt. 





So now we live in a country where a significant chunk of the population has aligned with the elite, and another big chunk who are so suspicious of the elite and the elite consensus that our inclination is to doubt everything they say. 

Societies can’t thrive for long in such situations, and not only because the division itself destroys the social trust that encourages risk-taking, innovation, and cooperation when the immediate payoffs aren’t obvious. 

As much as populists might believe that elites are necessarily a bad thing, that’s not really true. A well-functioning elite that sees its own interests as aligned with the long-term health of its culture and country is a force multiplier. The postwar elite created an international order that served America and the West very well, even if it made any number of errors along the way. 

The Marshall Plan, Bretton Woods, NATO, and the anti-communist consensus would not have been possible without an elite focused on the longer term. And the elite was given broad power to make investments in long-term stability—expensive and difficult investments, often enough—because the electorate trusted them. 

We trusted American universities to do great things and to add tremendous value to our society, even when they spent a lot of money on things we didn’t understand the value of. 

No longer, and the elite lost our trust because they didn’t deserve it. Over time, the elite no longer saw their own interests as aligned with ours, and they decided that we should be their subordinates. 





Our elites have rejected us, and we are rejecting them. 

Those of us who want to tear down the current elite, but it would be a mistake not to create parallel institutions. We need them, lest we become our own worst enemies. We need great universities, vibrant cultural institutions, “experts” we can trust, and leaders who can say “no” or “yes, but” when passions drive the electorate toward unwise policies. 

The Founders understood this. They were not anti-elite, per se. They designed a system where, on average, the interests of the elites and the populace were aligned. 

Can we get back to a healthier place? I’m not sure. It’s easier to destroy than to build, and our current elite has destroyed an awful lot. 

But there is an America that works. The country is not broken, but rather beset. 

It’s our job to put things right. 

BEST OF THE BABYLON BEE













BEST OF THE REST…





AND FINALLY…


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